by Franco Breciano (1 Submission)
Category: Registry
Compatability: Visual Basic 5.0
Difficulty: Unknown Difficulty
Originally Published: Mon 12th November 2001
Date Added: Mon 8th February 2021
Rating: 
(1 Votes)
Associate a file extension with your icon and your program.
API Declarations
Alias "RegCreateKeyA" (ByVal hKey As Long, _
ByVal lpSubKey As String, _
phkResult As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function RegSetValue Lib "advapi32.dll" _
Alias "RegSetValueA" (ByVal hKey As Long, _
ByVal lpSubKey As String, _
ByVal dwType As Long, _
ByVal lpData As String, _
ByVal cbData As Long) As Long
' Return codes from Registration functions.
Const ERROR_SUCCESS = 0&
Const ERROR_BADDB = 1&
Const ERROR_BADKEY = 2&
Const ERROR_CANTOPEN = 3&
Const ERROR_CANTREAD = 4&
Const ERROR_CANTWRITE = 5&
Const ERROR_OUTOFMEMORY = 6&
Const ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER = 7&
Const ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED = 8&
Private Const HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT = &H80000000
Private Const MAX_PATH = 260&
Private Const REG_SZ = 1
Private Declare Sub SHChangeNotify Lib "shell32.dll" _
(ByVal wEventId As Long, _
ByVal uFlags As Long, _
dwItem1 As Any, _
dwItem2 As Any)
Const SHCNE_ASSOCCHANGED = &H8000000
Const SHCNF_IDLIST = &H0&
VBcoders
Dim sKeyName As String ' Holds Key Name in registry.
Dim sKeyValue As String ' Holds Key Value in registry.
Dim ret& ' Holds error status if any from API calls.
Dim lphKey& ' Holds key handle from RegCreateKey.
Dim path As String
path = App.path & "\"
' Creates a key for the program
sKeyName = "MyProgram"
sKeyValue = "MyProgram File"
ret& = RegCreateKey&(HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, sKeyName, lphKey&)
ret& = RegSetValue&(lphKey&, "", REG_SZ, sKeyValue, 0&)
' Creates an entry for the program previously created and
' associates the name to the file extension
sKeyName = ".tst"
sKeyValue = "NAME OF THE PROGRAMVmailProducer"
ret& = RegCreateKey&(HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, sKeyName, lphKey&)
ret& = RegSetValue&(lphKey&, "", REG_SZ, sKeyValue, 0&)
' Associate the name of the program with the path of the program
sKeyName = "MyProgram"
sKeyValue = App.path + "\MyProgram.exe %1"
ret& = RegCreateKey&(HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, sKeyName, lphKey&)
ret& = RegSetValue&(lphKey&, "shell\open\command", REG_SZ, _
sKeyValue, MAX_PATH)
' Set the icon
sKeyName = "MyProgram"
sKeyValue = path & "Icon.ico"
ret& = RegCreateKey&(HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, sKeyName, lphKey&)
ret& = RegSetValue&(lphKey&, "DefaultIcon", REG_SZ, _
sKeyValue, MAX_PATH)
' Notify the icon has changed
SHChangeNotify SHCNE_ASSOCCHANGED, SHCNF_IDLIST, 0, 0
End Function