Display AHK file content within Explorers Preview Pane

[BoBo]

Hi,
bc I have been constantly annoyed that AHK's file content hasn't been displayed within Windows Explorers preview pane I asked my ol' pal Google for advice.
sHe showed up with this: https://kickthatcomputer.wordpress.com/ ... xtensions/
So I started AHK rocket sciencing to end up with this coding masterpiece ... that you have to use @ your own risk

Spoiler

Code: Select all

F1::RegWrite, REG_SZ, HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.ahk, PerceivedType, text
F2::RegDelete, HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.ahk, PerceivedType

Perceived types, defined as PerceivedType values, are similar to file types except that they refer to broad categories of file format types rather than specific file types. For example, image, text, audio, and compressed are perceived types. File types (generally public file types) can be assigned a perceived type, and should always be assigned one whenever there is one that is appropriate. For example, the image file types .bmp, .png, .jpg, and .gif are also of perceived type image.

The default perceived types are as follows:

• Folder
  Text
  Image
  Audio
  Video
  Compressed
  Document
  System
  Application
  Gamemedia
  Contacts

https://msdn.microsoft.com/de-de/librar ... eivedtypes

Another option, taken from [here] ...

To view HTML files as text in the preview pane use this registry patch (save with a .reg extension and double-click):

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\htmlfile\shellex\{8895B1C6-B41F-4C1C-A562-0D564250836F}]
@="{1531d583-8375-4d3f-b5fb-d23bbd169f22}"

Bonus: preview any file type without a preview handler as plain text:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\*\shellex\{8895B1C6-B41F-4C1C-A562-0D564250836F}]
@="{1531d583-8375-4d3f-b5fb-d23bbd169f22}"

Keep on coding

[RiseUp]

I had never heard of preview handlers until today. After plenty of googling and bouncing around, I ended up figuring out the same thing you did regarding registering a preview handler for .ahk files. Too bad I didn't first google if someone had already figured this out!

Thank you for posting your finds, though. I never knew I wanted this, but I sure do now!

[davebrny]

i have some reg files i run any time i get a new computer https://gist.github.com/davebrny/d88e0f ... c4f7c73bd2

i never thought of using the regWrite command though. that could save me a few clicks!

[Delta Pythagorean]

Awesome!

I think this topic should be moved to tutorials just for what the purpose is for this topic.

[megnatar]

Here is the reg key I'm using since ages to enable preview for .ahk file type.

Save as type:
ExplorerPreview_FileType_AHK.reg

Code: Select all

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.ahk\ShellEx]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.ahk\ShellEx\{8895b1c6-b41f-4c1c-a562-0d564250836f}]
@="{1531d583-8375-4d3f-b5fb-d23bbd169f22}"

[SKAN]

Thanks @BoBo / @megnatar