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Bitdefender Icons in Windows File Explorer Context Menu
I am only seeing the icons (these being options to scan a file, shred a file, or access to file vault) that appear for Bitdefender in the Windows File Explorer (explorer.exe) context menu (ie the 'right-click' menu) when running Windows File Explorer itself, and not when running any other applications that share the Windows File Explorer context menu.
I do not use Windows File Explorer for file management, but use a third party file manager called xplorer2 - and so I need these Bitdefender options to show in the context menu when using xplorer2.
All icons for all my other installed applications appear both when using Windows File Explorer and when using xplorer2, it is only the Bitdefender icons that are missing in xplorer2.
Does anyone please know what is required to make the icons show up for applications other than Windows File Explorer itself?
The version of Bitdefender is Bitdefender Internet Security 2018 (64 bit) and the version of xplorer2 I am running is the latest version of their 64 bit edition.
Comments
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Welcome to the Bitdefender Forums. I too am a long time xplorer2 user. I never noticed that Bitdefender did not show up in the right-click context menu when highlighting a file.
My thought is that, since BD options do show up in Windows File Explorer, it is xplorer2 which is failing to display the BD options. I would suggest contacting Nikos Bozinis, the developer. I had an issue many years ago that he resolved personally. I am sure that he will be very responsive to your query. Please be sure to come back and share with us any information that you receive from him as to how to resolve this issue.
I hope this helps. Thank you and have a great day.
Regards,
-PhilFormer Bleeping Computer Malware Response Instructor
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Hi Phil,
Thanks for your reply. Nice to 'meet' another xplorer2 user. I have already discussed this with Nikos, and we have pretty much eliminated xplorer2 as any sort of culprit - because it is not only xplorer2 that doesn't show the BD icons - it's all other apps - all except explorer.exe.
As you probably know - almost all applications use the same context menu for file system access - the same one that explorer.exe defines - accessed via the Windows API. The items that appear in it are defined in the registry in the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT hive. I can see the definitions for the BD icons in the keys of that hive and there doesn't appear to be anything 'odd' about them - but something else seems to be tying into them (or failing to tie into them) and causing them not be displayed when explorer.exe itself is not the parent process. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone else who uses Bitdefender so have no-one so far to compare notes with
An example of another app in which the icons should be able to be seen under 'normal circumstances' is Notepad,exe - if you don't mind, perhaps you could check this - assuming you have 64 Bit Windows 10 and 64 bit Bitdefender 2018 installed?
If you load the 64-bit edition of Notepad (by 'Right-Clicking' any text file in explorer.exe (ie 'Windows File Explorer')) and then use File | Open in Notepad itself to browse - 'Right-Click' any text file from there and you'll see the context menu - if things are consistent, all your usual Context Menu entries will be displayed - except those for Bitdefender. If you do see the BD icons in the context menu shown by Notepad then that will at least tell us that it's not a 'common issue' and is potentially something that BD failed to do in my registry during install.0 -
I can confirm that I don't see the BD icons in the context menu of Notepad "Open". Interesting that you have discussed this with Nikos and he doesn't know what the issue is, but as you have proven, it affects a native Windows application like Notepad, so I would presume that somehow the BD install failed to completely add/modify all applicable right-click context registry subkeys/values.
Perhaps /index.php?/profile/212852-sergiu-c/" data-ipshover-target="https://forum.bitdefender.com/index.php?/profile/212852-sergiu-c/&do=hovercard" data-mentionid="212852" rel="">@Sergiu C. or /index.php?/profile/201429-sorin-g/" data-ipshover-target="https://forum.bitdefender.com/index.php?/profile/201429-sorin-g/&do=hovercard" data-mentionid="201429" rel="">@Sorin G. will have some insight into this.
Have a great day.
Regards,
-PhilFormer Bleeping Computer Malware Response Instructor
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Hello,
As far as I know it is by design that Bitdefender only integrates with Windows Explorer, however I will see if I can get confirmation.
Edit: At this time the behavior is intended.0 -
Thank you for your post. Much appreciated.
Is there a reason for this "design feature"?
Like /index.php?/profile/213389-mister-tibbs/" data-ipshover-target="https://forum.bitdefender.com/index.php?/profile/213389-mister-tibbs/&do=hovercard" data-mentionid="213389" rel="">@Mister Tibbs, I really would like to have the option, at least, to integrate the a BD right-click context menu into xplorer2, which is my main file explorer software, since it is so much better than the default Windows File Explorer.
Thank you for any information that you can provide. Have a great day.
Regards,
-PhilFormer Bleeping Computer Malware Response Instructor
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Thanks Sergiu, your attention is appreciated.
And /index.php?/profile/175943-garioch7/&do=hovercard" data-mentionid="175943" href="<___base_url___>/index.php?/profile/175943-garioch7/" rel="">@garioch7 many thanks for carrying out those checks. Like you, I too would like to know the reason for this decision - I would guess that it is a well-intentioned attempt to reduce context-menu clutter by keeping the items out of places where BD developers consider them to be 'not required'. However, this has the side-effect of keeping them out of applications such as xplorer2 where they are certainly required.
I would also say that keeping them out of any application's use of the context menu is not really useful as (for example) one might want to 'Quick Scan' a file during a file|open operation - as I have often done when using AVG, Avast, Kaspersy, etc - all of which I have used at various times in the past and none of which impose the limitation on the presence of the 'Quick Check' icons that Bitdefender imposes.
If that is the case, and there is no functional imperative for these options to be limited in availability to Windows File Explorer, may we have the necessary information required to add/or change the relevant registry key(s) in order to enable the icons to be displayed for other applications?
Thanks again to all for help so far.
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Further to my immediately previous post...
I have found this - from a Bitdefender user who encountered the same problem in 2016 - http://www.boki.be/content/bitdefender-goes-bridge-too-far
Somewhat incredibly, all the indications are that the exclusion is achieved by hard-coding the name 'explorer.exe' somewhere in a Bitdefender binary or .dll, and so there is no possible workaround?!?
The post quotes Bitdefender support from 2016 saying that "problems have been encountered" with "other file managers" - but no details are given of either the nature of the problems nor which specific file managers caused them.
I have made a copy of the xplorer2 executable and named it 'explorer.exe' as the writer of the linked blog post did with another file management program in 2016, and lo and behold, the Bitdefender options are there!! I have spent the past hour using the 'Scan File' and 'Shred File' options constantly with no problems whatsoever. I don't use the Bitdefender 'Vault' feature so have not touched those options.
The post from 2016 said the matter would be escalated and examined- but no further communication on the issue took place.
Can we not escalate this issue properly - at least with the aim of adding xplorer2 to the 'list' of supported file managers for access to (for the time being) just the 'Scan File' and 'Shred File' options?
If the Bitdefender developers would be willing to share the information that they have on the ''problems with other file managers' referred to in the 2016 post - and (based on what they turn out to be) move 'the block' on those two options (if the block is really hard-coded) into a registry-based 'block' instead, which can be 'overridden at the customer's own risk', then I would be happy to beta-test the solution with xplorer2.
/index.php?/profile/175943-garioch7/&do=hovercard" data-mentionid="175943" href="<___base_url___>/index.php?/profile/175943-garioch7/" rel="">@garioch7 /index.php?/profile/212852-sergiu-c/&do=hovercard" data-mentionid="212852" href="<___base_url___>/index.php?/profile/212852-sergiu-c/" rel="">@Sergiu C.
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Thank you for your post. It was most interesting!
I fully support your request. Forcing BD users to use the inferior Windows File Explorer to have a BD right-click context menu seems to me to be unnecessarily restrictive. Both you and I are long-time xplorer2 users, and we both know that the Nikos' software is stable and so very much better than the Windows File Explorer.
I am going to be very interest to see how BD Tech Support responds ...
Have a great day, thank you for all of your research and testing; and, most of all, for sharing it with us all.
Regards,
-PhilFormer Bleeping Computer Malware Response Instructor
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Hi,
The issues would mainly appear when file explorer apps would be updated by their developers, and would have required for us to constantly check for compatibility as well.
This feature however, has been brought back to our team for consideration so that our app may integrate with at least some of the most popular explorer apps, other than Windows Explorer.0 -
Thank you for your post and for sending our request to your team for further consideration. It would be great if compatibility with xplorer2 was added as a feature to BD. This is a long-time, very stable program and it has been widely used for many years by those of us unhappy with the limitations of the native Windows file explorer application. I have lifetime licences for explorer2 for both of my computers.
Have a great weekend, and thank you again.
Regards,
-PhilFormer Bleeping Computer Malware Response Instructor
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Hi /index.php?/profile/175943-garioch7/&do=hovercard" data-mentionid="175943" href="<___base_url___>/index.php?/profile/175943-garioch7/" rel="">@garioch7 and /index.php?/profile/212852-sergiu-c/&do=hovercard" data-mentionid="212852" href="<___base_url___>/index.php?/profile/212852-sergiu-c/" rel="">@Sergiu C.
That sounds relatively positive, although not unlike what was said in 2016, where the issue just seemed to be left 'to die a death' - is there some way of tracking this issue? It is of significant importance to me and will dictate whether I sign up for a Bitdefender subscription in August when my current subscription with AVG expires.
I am currently testing out alternatives and so had BD on the thirty-day trial. I will definitely be moving away from AVG and now have a shortlist of two products one of which I will sign up to in August. Bitdefender is one of them and is my preferred option generally, but I won't be using it if access to 'Scan a File' and 'Shred a file' is not available via the context menu in xplorer2, it's just too much of an inconvenience to be without them.
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Hi,
I will make sure that if the feature is added, it will be posted in the change-log . Please note that I cannot guarantee that the feature will be implemented, I can only tell you that we've forwarded the suggestion to our development team.0 -
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Restricting the context-menu items to just explorer.exe is making it very hard to effectively evaluate Bitdefender.
Would like to see FreeCommander XE added to the list of programs that show the Bitdefender context-menu items.
Can this be implemented soon?1
