Context menu scan

I use Directory Opus file explorer which is far superior to File Explorer. But I cannot right click a file to scan it with Bitdefender. Every other context menu entry available to File Explorer is there.

I have read other posts that suggest Bitdefender will not support context menu scan from any other explorer. First question: why? Why can I not have this on my preferred explorer.

I read one answer that said Bitdefender will scan the http as a file is downloaded, then again when you try to access it. What if someone gives me the file via the network, not http. What if I want to give the file to someone else who does not have Bitdefender. I want to ensure its clean first.

Ok, so I'll add my own entry with a context menu editor. Just need to call Bitdefenders command line interface. Again, on home products Bitdefender have deleted such an option. Question 2: why? Why can I as a user not do this.

Oh alright, I'll create a custom scan of the main directory I might want to right click and scan. Just need to make this readily available ro run. On the explorer context menu. No! Ok, on the Bitdefender tray icon context menu. No! Oh all right, I'll add it to the Bitdefender dashboard. Nope! can't do that either.

I can drop the file onto the desktop widget, but that is not always visible, and making it stay visible whilst using an explorer to drag/drop is not dead simple. And anyway, for this one function I don't necessarily want that widget visible over all other apps all the time.

Come on Bitdefender, give us some user control.

Comments

  • I agree

    What is BitDefender's problem???

    I have signed up for 1 year but wont renew. Purposly making this avaialable to windows file explorer only. No Thanks!

  • I found this post by looking just to do that. I have the newest release of Directory Opus (SOOO much better than the Explorer built into Windows) and I want to be able to use Bitdefender in context menus.

    Not like this takes a lot of work to program. Plenty of other software works in it, even things like Nord VPN which just added a meshnet feature I've never used.

    Come on BitDefender, we are paying customers.

  • I agree. I have been living with this problem for many years and have been a loyal BD customer, but my loyalty has run out. There are MANY better file managers than File Explorer (I use Directory Opus for example) and BD shouldn't be dictating which of these their customer uses, or is unable to use. Purposefully making this context menu option available only to File Explorer creates a terrible user experience for their paying customer. My BD subscription renews in the next three months and I'll be choosing an alternative to BD rather than be forced by BD to use products that don't suit me.

  • Flexx
    Flexx mod
    edited May 31

    @camarie, can you check on this.

    Regards

    Life happens, Coffee helps!

    Show your Attitude, when you reach that Altitude!

    Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus (user)

  • camarie
    camarie BD Staff

    I'm afraid it is not so simple. Windows Explorer uses a documented mechanism of defining, implementing and loading approved contextual shell extensions (actually, there are quite a number of such extensions of other types, but I digress). Implementing such extension is non-trivial, and requires the host application to mimic the explorer behavior - that is, other file managers, which may or may not fully implement support for shell extensions, to at least use the same registry keys and server-side implementation as explorer (server side meaning, in this case, the host application, as opposed to client side which will be the extension itself).

    I know for a fact, for example, that Total Commander, which we were ask to support some many years ago, exhibited a small but very unpleasant internal behaviors, which sometimes leads us unable to determine the current directory, or the selected items - a critical thing for a right-click inside a directory; how can one guarantee, for example, scanning a directory, when the host application does not even pass you correctly the very directory you performed the action, or what items are selected to perform the action on. Such "other" applications load shell context extension as they will, but under their own restrictions and conventions (or interest, for that matter). For example, one can do a right click and the context menu extension can choose to operate only on real, disk items, i.e. if I select on desktop, say, two regular files and Control Panel item, the latter is a virtual item and obviously scan does make any sense, at least not as a file or directory item. Other applications loading such context menu extensions can define websites, purchases, credit cards, movies, bookmarks etc. - think of iTunes, for example, which brings under the same umbrella completely unrelated items.

    In short: it is quite hard to maintain a single, correct set on shell context menu extension, operating in a correct, cohesive manner in file managers - with many versions on many different Windows versions - we do not know how they behave, or if it will not be some old (or future) bug that can hamper our implementation without even knowing it, or be able to do something about - after all, an extension is just a dynamic library loaded in a foreign application and assumes a cooperation defined by its programming documentation, which, in the case of Windows Explorer, dates back to 1995 - and even they have bugs every now and then - but in the case of others, basically is non-existent.

    Now back to the Opus File Explorer (and for that matter, say, Total Commander, which is another file manager often used). I will propose, as an advanced/experimental feature, to support file managers other than Windows Explorer, but this will probably come with a warning for the user, most likely stating the usage in a non-default, experimental version. For now let's see where this goes and what feedback and priority we can get for this. I cannot guarantee when - or if - such an implementation will be done, because this is basically an N-dimensional matrix - multiply A file managers x B versions x C operating systems x D actions x E various actions etc.

  • @camarie I know it is not necessarily straight-forward, but I know a lot of programs can do it, so why can't bitdefender.

    Even my 10+ year old previous app could do this via the contact menu - scan the file or the directory.

    Have you tried reaching out to the developers? I am sure they would be more than willing to assist making your product more compatible.

    The developers are very responsive

    Thanks

    Dean

  • camarie
    camarie BD Staff
    edited June 4

    I am one of the developers, this is why I wanted to lay out the details regarding this.

    The feature request has already been created by me; although I am not (anymore) involved in the contextual menu area, I wrote a number of them so I know what to do. Most likely I will produce a proof of concept so the team can judge and possibly approve this, and I'll see how it goes from there. If or when it will be approved, I cannot say at this time. But I'll push for it, that I can say at this time.

  • Thanks @camarie
    Sorry was referring to the DOPUS developers - they respond back really quickly to requests from users and hopefully 3rd party developers :-)

  • camarie
    camarie BD Staff

    Ah, my bad, did not get it :)

    Will do, thanks for pointing this out.

  • Thank you @camarie for your response and willingness to champion this request inside Bitdefender.

    Might I also suggest that if BD is wary for whatever reason in allowing this feature to exist for any file manager that isn't Microsoft File Explorer (ie the current behaviour) then Bitdefender might be willing to make it available by exception to your users ie make it an option available to your users that is switched off by default. I can't think of why this might be the case, but if it is then your customer would need to make a conscious choice to take whatever risk you perceive exists to switch the feature on. I'd be keen to hear thoughts from Bitdefender on this.

    Further, I've discovered the following very curious behaviour related directly to this topic.

    I upgraded my PC from Windows 10 Pro to Windows 11 Pro on 15 May 2024. Both Bitdefender and Directory Opus came across from the old Windows 10 Pro install and worked out of the box. Curiously, the right click context menu in Directory Opus that was not available while on Windows 10, immediately began displaying Bitdefender options for scanning and shredding files under Windows 11. I even used this feature regularly over the next two weeks and it operated flawlessly.

    As my Bitdefender product is set to auto update, an update was completed on 30 May 2024 (15 days after the Windows 11 upgrade) which installed Build 27.0.38.163 and after this the Bitdefender options for scanning and shredding files no longer appeared in the Directory Opus context menu. So, clearly this change was a result of the Bitdefender product update.

    I can also confirm that the Bitdefender options appeared in the context menu for Microsoft File Explorer both immediately after the Microsoft Windows upgrade on 15 May 2024, and continue to appear today after the Bitdefender product update on 30 May 2024.

    During this time I can also confirm my PC has had no further Windows updates applied.

    This leads me to my question: I'm curious as to why Bitdefender is consciously making changes to remove this feature (which is clearly already working for at least the Directory Opus file manager, and probably others) from being made available to any file manager except for Microsoft File Explorer? What is the logic in removing a feature that is already working?

  • camarie
    camarie BD Staff

    The reason for allowing it only in certain executables comes from - you guessed it - bugs/crashes. We did test it in a number of other hosts, and we encountered various malfunctions, albeit not straight on 100%. The decision was not an easy one, but it was a conservative one: one cannot run in a host known to not play nice with our extensions, and if something bad happens, we will be blamed for the bug (or maybe even worse if that leads to major malfunctions).

    What you said I think is the correct way: user should be warned about allowing contextual extensions run under 3rd party hosts, but if this is acceptable, at least to have it possible to use (and, in case it does not for some corner case bugs, be able to disable this and report to us "look, we have ACME file manager version A, and with your product version B this bug/problem arises". I think this use case is the best compromise between the uneasiness of running in unknown and undocumented file managers while letting the user access and use this feature.

  • Hi @camarie

    Is there potential that it could operate as a Beta feature until enough of us have tested to be sure there are no identifiable bugs. We all accept the risk of a Beta feature potentially being buggy.

    I have conversed with the Directory Opus devs on the context menu a while ago and they said their hands are tied until BD allows the operation to function, but they seemed keen to and interested to incorporate it.

  • camarie
    camarie BD Staff

    I don't know about a beta, since this involves a lot of tedious internal things (testing, release a beta, announcements and all the assortment costs). If this will make thru a release, it will be most likely released as a regular update with the default on off.

  • Fd1
    Fd1

    I'm not sure I understand why its so difficult to add a context menu.

    I added one for an app of mine by creating reg key:

    HKCU\SOFTWARE\Classes*\Shell\MyAppName\Command = "myappname.exe %1"

    This context menu immediately turned up happily in Explorer and Directory Opus.

  • Scott
    Scott ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited June 5

    But that was a stand alone key you created for one app, it wasn't one incorporated into a full blown AV suite with multiple functions and settings, then let alone keeping up with any Opus updates that could break that functionality?

    There was a period over the last year where a Windows update broke for some the context menu option for BD scans as well as the Recycle Bin scan. So, that was just trying to keep up with Windows updates, let alone Opus?

    And I get that some of the other AV's have that ability, but BD is a different animal, maybe a bit more tricky to incorporate with how it's wired?

    Just my 2 cents, FWIW :)

    All Bitdefender Home Product User Guides: https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/user-guides/

  • camarie
    camarie BD Staff

    @Fd1 It's a little bit more complex than that. This is only the introduction: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/shell/context-menu-handlers

    Add to this the setup/installer, the settings that should be persisted/loaded/saved, UX, multiple languages; then security, interprocess communication, menu item verb selection and availability, type of selected items (if any), virtual items, shell icon cache/extraction, remote items, various non-explorer host applications etc etc. and it quickly start to be not so simple. And that's what I am enumerating from memory without touching the code for some years. We have to be absolutely sure the explorer is not crashing or freezing for some corner case. Or worse.
    Your registry entry, while looking correct, is barely scratching the surface, and this for only one app. This type of context menu is not a simple association between an item type and a well-known verb such as Open or default action, but rather highly customized actions involving multiple executables needing to be verified, prevent others from spamming or exploiting us and so on.

    Anyways, as I said, I am pushing for this feature and most likely I will wrote a proof of concept in the hope it will be approved.