Solved issue with context menu not displaying

I ran into what appears to be the same or a closely related issue to #554 on Windows 10 with File Converter 2.2.0.

The File Converter context menu disappeared completely.

Troubleshooting performed

I initially suspected the shell extension registration, but after troubleshooting:

• FileConverterExtension was enabled in ShellExView (Disabled = No)
• CLSID {AF9B72B5-F4E4-44B0-A3D9-B55B748EFE90} was correctly registered in the 64-bit registry
• HKCR\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\FileConverterExtension correctly referenced that CLSID
• The extension was not present in either Shell Extensions\Blocked location
• EnforceShellExtensionSecurity was not enabled
• The COM class could successfully be instantiated from 64-bit PowerShell
• FileConverter.exe version was 2.2.0.0
• FileConverterExtension.dll version was 1.2.1.0

What fixed it

Renaming:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\FileConverter\Settings.user.xml

to:

Settings.user.xml.BACKUP

and then restarting Windows Explorer immediately restored the File Converter context menu.

So in my case, the shell extension and registry registration were fine. Something in Settings.user.xml was causing the extension not to expose the context menu.

Misleading ShellExView path

One potentially confusing symptom was that ShellExView displayed the extension path as:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\C:/Program Files/File Converter/FileConverterExtension.DLL

However, the actual registry CodeBase value was:

file:///C:/Program Files/File Converter/FileConverterExtension.DLL

which appears to be a valid .NET/RegAsm file URI.

So the malformed-looking ShellExView path turned out to be a red herring.

Possible implication

A repair or reinstall may not solve this issue if the existing:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\FileConverter\Settings.user.xml

is preserved.

Removing or renaming that file caused the context menu to return immediately.

I still have the old Settings.user.xml.BACKUP file and can provide it if that would help reproduce the issue.

Settings.user.xml