Question

I know how to write shell extesions in python.
The drawbacks are

• it does not work on 64 bit Windows
• I am unsure how creating a python process everytime something “happens” reduces performance.

I know how to write shell extensions using .Net (C#)
The drawbacks are

• discouraged by MS
• I am unsure how this reduces performance. (does it?)

I have seen shell extenions written in (free)pascal.

• Are there drawbacks using this approach
• Does this work with 64bit windows.

Obviosly one can write shell extensions using c or c++

• Well… I am still trying to understand com in c and c++….

What other optios are there, what other languages ?
Do they have drawbacks?

Answer 1

Since .NET 4 came along, MS now do support .Net for Shell Extensions, since the major problem (cannot host multiple CLR versions in shell) has been solved through the side-by-side mechanism:

With the ability to have multiple
runtimes in process with any other
runtime, we can now offer general
support for writing managed shell
extensions—even those that run
in-process with arbitrary applications
on the machine. We still do not
support writing shell extensions using
any version earlier than .NET
Framework 4 because those versions of
the runtime do not load in-process
with one another and will cause
failures in many cases.