Open Visual Studio 2008 Command Prompt Here Context Menu

Question

I have put together some registry keys to add a Visual Studio 2008 Command Prompt context menu when a user "shift + right-clicks".
Note: It is assumed that visual studio is installed in the default location on c:

          (for new registry users:  to install, 
          1:  copy everything in bold and past into a new textpad file, 
          2:  save the file as .reg  
          3:  Open the start menu and run regedit.exe
          4:  Open 'File' > 'Import  
          5:  Find file location and click ok 

          If the keys are added successfully you'll see a prompt saying so

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell\VS2008 Command Prompt]
@="Open VS2008 Command Prompt Here"
"Extended"=""
"NoWorkingDirectory"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell\VS2008 Command Prompt\command]
@="C:\\Windows\\System32\\cmd.exe /s /k \"pushd %V && \"C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\\VC\\vcvarsall.bat\"\" x86 "

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\VS2008 Command Prompt]
@="Open VS2008 Command Prompt Here"
"Extended"=""
"NoWorkingDirectory"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\VS2008 Command Prompt\command]
@="C:\\Windows\\System32\\cmd.exe /s /k \"pushd %V && \"C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\\VC\\vcvarsall.bat\"\" x86 "

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\VS2008 Command Prompt]
@="Open VS2008 Command Prompt Here"
"Extended"=""
"NoWorkingDirectory"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\VS2008 Command Prompt\command]
@="C:\\Windows\\System32\\cmd.exe /s /k \"pushd %V && \"C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\\VC\\vcvarsall.bat\"\" x86 "

Answer 1

Hi devsuldier,

Thanks for this! I noticed an error with the pushd %V command that caused it to not work on my Windows XP SP2 machine so I went ahead and modified your script a little bit (basically replacing pushd %V with cd \"%1\".

I added a batch file to automatically add the entries to the registry on startup (my current employer resets the registry at reboot :S). You can find more information on my blog (here).

Cheers,
Erik

Answer 2

Hi .. May I know why it is %V ? I don't see any help anywhere ?