I was looking for a way to add my program into Windows Explorer right-click context. So I googled it, and I think I found what I was looking for.

As usual, StackOverflow delivers the best clue. I found this discussion that gave me the starting point.

So the idea here is to use Windows’ registry. Apparently there’s a location where we can register/unregister the context menu.

Thanks polyglot & StackOverflow!

These are the required assemblies to interop with Windows.

using System;
using Microsoft.Win32;

The functions to register/unregister the context menu :

string contextName = "contextTest";
public bool Register()
{
	//Open HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, Key *, last param is to make it writable
	RegistryKey reg = Registry.ClassesRoot.OpenSubKey("*", true);
	if (reg != null)
	{
		RegistryKey shell = reg.OpenSubKey("shell", true);
		if (shell != null)
		{
			//Get Current Assembly fullname
			string appLocation = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location;
			
			RegistryKey ctx = shell.OpenSubKey(contextName);
			if (ctx != null)
				return true;
			else
				ctx = shell.CreateSubKey(contextName);
			ctx.SetValue("","Context It");
			RegistryKey cmd = ctx.CreateSubKey("command");
			cmd.SetValue("", """ + appLocation +"" "%L"");
			return true;
		}
	}
	return false;
}
public bool Unregister()
{
	RegistryKey reg = Registry.ClassesRoot.OpenSubKey("*", true);
	if (reg != null)
	{
		RegistryKey shell = reg.OpenSubKey("shell", true);
		if (shell != null)
		{
			shell.DeleteSubKeyTree(contextName);					
			return true;
		}
	}
	return false;
}

The result:

Yesterday, a colleague requested my assistance to modify an Excel chart. She has the following chart:

The data: (not the real data, of course :D)

She wanted to add another series of data for next year profit target:

So how do we incorporate the new row?

1. Add the new series.
   Right click on the chart, click ‘Source Data’
   Click Add button, and fill up the fields as indicated
2. Modify the series
   If you don’t have Chart toolbar as shown below, click View – Toolbars – Chart. If you already have it, select the newly created series.
   Change the chart type. Change the chart properties.

Final result:

These are free ebooks that hopefully will help all of us to be a better programmer/architects. Thanks Anoop!!

1. Foundations Of Programming
2. Microsoft Application Architecture Guide, 2nd Edition
3. Rob Miles C# Yellow Book 2010
4. Threading in C#
5. Improving .NET Application Performance and Scalability
6. Applying Design Patterns

Happy reading!