Directory Services

Registering a Static Context Menu Item

The Microsoft® Active Directory® administrative MMC snap-ins and Windows 2000 shell provide a mechanism to add an item to the context menu displayed for Active Directory objects that invoke any file that can be started with the ShellExecute API, such as an application or Web page URL.

Registering with Active Directory

Context menu extension registration is specific to one locale. If the context menu extension applies to all locales, it must be registered in the object class displaySpecifier object in all of the locale subcontainers in the Display Specifiers container. If the context menu extension is localized for a certain locale, it must be registered in the displaySpecifier object in that locale subcontainer. For more information about the Display Specifiers container and locales, see Display Specifiers and DisplaySpecifiers Container.

There are two display specifier attributes that a static context menu item can be registered under, adminContextMenu and shellContextMenu.

The adminContextMenu attribute identifies administrative context menus to display in Active Directory administrative snap-ins. The context menu appears when the user displays the context menu for objects of the appropriate class in one of the Active Directory administrative MMC snap-ins.

The shellContextMenu attribute identifies end-user context menus to display in the Windows shell. The context menu appears when the user views the context menu for objects of the appropriate class in the Windows Explorer. Beginning with Windows Server 2003, the Windows shell no longer displays Active Directory objects.

All of these attributes are multi-valued.

When registering a static context menu item, the values for the adminContextMenu and shellContextMenu attributes require the following format:

<order number>,<menu text>,<command>

The <order number> is an unsigned number that represents the item's position in the context menu. When a context menu is displayed, the values are sorted using a comparison of each value's <order number>. If more than one value has the same <order number>, those context menu extensions are loaded in the order they are read from Active Directory. If possible, use a non-existing <order number>, that is, one that has not been used by other values in the property. There is no prescribed starting position, and gaps are allowed in the <order number> sequence.

The <menu text> is the string displayed in the context menu. The <menu text> can include one "&" character that preceeds the keyboard shortcut character for the menu item. This will cause the preceeded character to be underlined. For example, if the <menu text> is "&File", the menu text will be displayed as "File", the "F" will be underlined and "F" will be the keyboard shortcut for the menu item.

The <command> is the program or file executed by the snap-in. Either the full path must be specified or the file must exist in the computer's path environment variable. The file is invoked using the ShellExecute function. The <command> cannot contain additional parameters, for example, Notepad.exe Myfile.txt. Because ShellExecute is used, any file or address that can be passed to ShellExecute can be used for <command>. For example, if <command> contains "d:\file.txt", d:\file.txt will be opened with the application associated with the .txt extension. Likewise, if <command> contains "http://www.fabrikam.com", the default Web browser is opened and will display the specified web page. Paths and application names with spaces are allowed. If <command> is an application, the selected object's ADsPath and class are passed as command line arguments, separated by a space.

In the Windows shell, multiple-selection context menu items are supported. In this case, the <command> is invoked for each selected object. In Active Directory administrative snap-ins, multiple-selection static context menu items are not supported.

Important  For the Windows shell, display specifier data is retrieved at user logon and cached for the user's session. For the administrative snap-ins, the display specifier data is retrieved when the snap-in is loaded and is cached for the duration of the process. For the Windows shell, this means changes to display specifiers take effect after a user logs off and back on again. For the administrative snap-ins, changes take effect when the snap-in or console file is reloaded; that is, if you start a new instance of the console file or new Mmc.exe instance and add the snap-in, the latest display specifier data is retrieved.

For more information, and an example of a static context menu item and how to programatically install a static context menu item, see Example Code for Installing a Static Context Menu Item.