Fix for Send To
Many active W3C working group participants use Altova software to edit and manipulate XML resources. I’m no different. When MissionKit 2008 became available, it was natural for me to upgrade, and I chose to do it during a brief down-time between two engagements in the US. What else is a guy to do at the weekend?
First I checked my license keys, readme files and other resources to prepare for the upgrade. As usual, when opening these files I choose an editor via the “Send To” feature of Explorer’s context menu (right-click). I use this in preference to registering file extensions, and it’s invaluable for dealing with files that have strange or no extensions. Then I did the uninstall of 2007, and a full installation of 2008.
Minutes later I discovered my Send To had broken. No more Send To Notepad, or Send To Crimson, or Send To any of a dozen editors I use. Naturally, one thinks: “what has changed since the last time it worked?” The Altova upgrade was the suspect. Trawling the Web found at least one other victim of this problem, but no solution.
After a lot of registry hacking, I finally figured out a solution. A simple registry fix to repair the drop handler. In case I ever hit this problem again, here’s the registry fix:
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile\shellex\DropHandler]
@="{00021401-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}"
Not pretty, but it does the job.
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