Register & Unregister a DLL from Windows Explorer

Back in my developer days when I was building DLLs and OCXs, I was constantly registering and unregistering DLLs using the command line (find me a dev who isn't a command line junkie - I still have two prompts open as I type this). As time's gone on, I submitted to using Windows Explorer more and more to do things and (this is going back many years), someone told me how to setup a shell extension to DLLs to allow you to register and unregister them directly. I guess I kept that file around all these years and it's useful to find it again now I'm installing test builds regularly. Hopefully, it's obvious how this works when you see the registry file below. Simply save as xyzzy.reg and merge it into the registry.

REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.dll]
@="dllfile"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\dllfile\shell]
@="WIN_SYS"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\dllfile\shell\REG_32]
@="Register"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\dllfile\shell\REG_32\command]
@="regsvr32.exe %1"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\dllfile\shell\Unregister]
@=""
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\dllfile\shell\Unregister\command]
@="regsvr32.exe /u %1"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.ocx]
@="dllfile"

Once you click on a DLL in Windows Explorer, you'll see two new options to Register and Unregister DLLs. Normal disclaimer applys about messing up your registry if you choose to use this etc.

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