Shell Menu tweaks

[XYZ000]

Hi

I have been using NCH Switch Sound File Converter Plus for the longest time - mainly because it had this neat option of adding the the right click menu entries for quick conversions. Long story short, Switch creates awful mess in Registry - but nevertheless it allows [with some additional registry tweaking] for the shell menu layout to become as user friendly as possible. As I have recently squinted myself with dBpoweramp - I see it is good in this terms but could be better


So what I want to do is to have at the top of my shell menu equivalent of the entries available in the Quick Convert sub-menu: for encoding to FLAC and WAV. Has anyone already done that and has a ready solution? In form of a REG file?



With Switch its shell tweaking was easy, because as it added by default "Convert to .flac using Switch" I was able to find it in in Registry and use it as basis for adding more entries to Registry. But dBpoweramp has for example "(m4b) Audio Book" in its sub-menu but it cannot be found in the Registry

And so: how do I add a shell entry that will convert a selected file to particular format - e.g. FLAC to WAV?

[Spoon]

Re: Shell Menu tweaks

If you enable profiles, then create a new profile for each encoder you want at the top, such as:

1 FLAC
2 Wave

then they will appear at the top.

[XYZ000]

Re: Shell Menu tweaks

The help says at file:///C:/Program%20Files/dBpoweramp/Help/dMC/dMCConfig.htm

Enable Profiles in Converter when checked places a menu item [Create New Profile] into the 'Converting To' encoder selection menu within the Music Converter Menu, to create a profile based on the current encoder.



And so I selected

Advanced Settings > dBpoweramp Reference > Enable Profiles in Converter

but I do not see any change. When I select a file, right clcik it and select "Convert To" [thus evoking the dBpoweramp Music Converter window] I see not option for profiles. The only profiles I see are in the dBpoweramp Batch Converter - but them I was ale to use even bofore selecting that "Enable Profiles in Converter" option

[Spoon]

Re: Shell Menu tweaks

Once you have enabled profiles, look in the encoder drop menu, there should be an entry [create profile]

If not it is because you do not have the registered version or the trial has elapsed.

[XYZ000]

Re: Shell Menu tweaks

OK, now I see it

But it is not what hoped for - because those new / extra entries are created within that "Quick Covert" sub-menu and not on the main shell menu list



I tried adding to the Registry such hack in form of a REG file

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\SystemFileAssociations\.flac\Shell\FLAC to WAV\command]
@=""C:\\Program Files\\dBpoweramp\\CoreConverter.exe" -convert_to="Wave" -bits="16" -freq="44100""

but it does not work - i.e. the "command" Key is created within the Registry and the shell menu displays in its middle the "FLAC to WAV" entry for FLAC files, but it does nothing as it is not associated with any task

[XYZ000]

Re: Shell Menu tweaks

OK, now I see it

But it is not what hoped for - because those new / extra entries are created within that "Quick Covert" sub-menu and not on the main shell menu list



I tried adding to the Registry such hack

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\SystemFileAssociations\.flac\Shell\FLAC to WAV\command]
@=""C:\\Program Files\\dBpoweramp\\CoreConverter.exe" -convert_to="Wave" -bits="16" -freq="44100""

but it does not work - i.e. the "command" Key is created within the Registry and the shell menu displays in its middle the "FLAC to WAV" entry for FLAC files, but it does nothing as it is not associated with any task

[Spoon]

Re: Shell Menu tweaks

It is not possible to launch music converter this way.

[XYZ000]

Re: Shell Menu tweaks

[...]
@=""C:\\Program Files\\dBpoweramp\\CoreConverter.exe" -convert_to="Wave" -bits="16" -freq="44100""
[...]

The correct version would be

 @=""C:\\Program Files\\dBpoweramp\\CoreConverter.exe" -convert_to="Wave" -bits="16" -freq="44100""

But as

It is not possible to launch music converter this way.

then maybe it could be made into a feature? Just like I said- a simple option for choice where to add those to add those now Quick Convert entries: in the main shell menu or in its sub-menu?



Aside waiting for that to happen



Would it be possible to create a command Key in the Registry that would evoke that whole original Key located at

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Illustrate\dbpoweramp\d MCCodec\Wave]

thus creating in the shell menu something like a LNK shortcut to a BAT file containing a script? I think some shortcuts are possible in Registry. For example I have

 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Mp3tagShell]
 @="{6351E20C-35FA-4BE3-98FB-4CABF1363E12}"

and that {6351E20C-35FA-4BE3-98FB-4CABF1363E12} is kept in other places as both Key name and Value data. And I can remove it just from that HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shellex\ContextMenuHan dlers\Mp3tagShell location thus removing Mp3tag entry from my shell menu - but for dBpoweramp I would need to do a kind of opposite operation





I also tried out running in the CMD

 "C:\Program Files\dBpoweramp\CoreConverter.exe" -infile="x.flac"  -outfile="c:\x.wav" -convert_to="Wave" -bits="16" -freq="44100"

and it worked. But that was for a specific file named x.flac with specified output. So I tried running something more vague like

 "C:\Program Files\dBpoweramp\CoreConverter.exe" -infile="x.flac"   -outfile="[origdrive]\[origpath]\[origfilename]" -convert_to="Wave"   -bits="16" -freq="44100"

to see if I could somehow built some BAT script or REG command entry from that - but it did not work. So that approach will surely not work

[XYZ000]

Re: Shell Menu tweaks

The correct version would be
[...]
Would it be possible to create a command Key in the Registry that would evoke that whole original Key located at

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Illustrate\dbpoweramp\d MCCodec\Wave]

thus creating in the shell menu something like a LNK shortcut to a BAT file containing a script?
[...]

So does anyone know how to hack the Registry in this regard?

[Spoon]

Re: Shell Menu tweaks

It is not possible sorry. Our shell extensions are based on code which runs, rather than the simple Shell calling a program, this means if you had 10,000 files selected in Windows explorer, it would be significantly faster.