How can I add "open with shotcut" to MKV or MP4 video files on Windows 10?

He who is Ben Myers said on Thu, 5 Oct 2017 12:52:15 -0400:

Some programs require "%1 %*".

Thanks because I think the syntax only is broken and not the concept of
adding a static right-click menu item to "Open with Shotcut".

Syntax can kill especially when not understood, so, I had to experiment:

These all failed:
HKCR\*\shell\Open with Shotcut\command
Default = "C:\path-to-exe\shotcut\shotcut.exe %1 %*"
Default = C:\path-to-exe\shotcut\shotcut.exe" %1 %*
Default = C:\path-to-exe\shotcut\shotcut.exe %1 %*

Saying in the bottom of Shotcut:
Failed to open C:\path-to-video\New

Does the inclusion of "New" tell us something about the syntax to use?

Anyway, the interesting thing is that Shotcut is opened with most of the
syntax attempts, even as the file isn't inside of shotcut so it's not too
hard to them do an "File Open video.mp4" or "Control + O" which,
thankfully, defaults to the current location so the file is right there for
the clicking.

On 10/5/2017 5:09 PM, harry newton wrote:
He who is Ben Myers said on Thu, 5 Oct 2017 12:52:15 -0400:
Some programs require "%1 %*".
Thanks because I think the syntax only is broken and not the concept of
adding a static right-click menu item to "Open with Shotcut".
Syntax can kill especially when not understood, so, I had to experiment:
These all failed:
HKCR\*\shell\Open with Shotcut\command Default =
"C:\path-to-exe\shotcut\shotcut.exe %1 %*"
Default = C:\path-to-exe\shotcut\shotcut.exe" %1 %*
Default = C:\path-to-exe\shotcut\shotcut.exe %1 %*
Saying in the bottom of Shotcut:
Failed to open C:\path-to-video\New
Does the inclusion of "New" tell us something about the syntax to use?
Anyway, the interesting thing is that Shotcut is opened with most of the
syntax attempts, even as the file isn't inside of shotcut so it's not too
hard to them do an "File Open video.mp4" or "Control + O" which,
thankfully, defaults to the current location so the file is right there for
the clicking.

I found what may be a related problem on the Shotcut forum.

https://forum.shotcut.org/t/fail-to-...her-than-c/702

Ben

He who is Ben Myers said on Thu, 5 Oct 2017 21:17:02 -0400:

I found what may be a related problem on the Shotcut forum.

https://forum.shotcut.org/t/fail-to-...her-than-c/702

Thanks Ben for looking that one up as it is frustrating that Microsoft
Windows 10 can't do what Windows XP had no problem doing, which is to
simply right click on a video to open in any desired program in a simple
manner.

Windows 10 forces the user to repeatedly wade through a series of needless
forms, just to open up a video in a video editor of your own choosing.

Looking at that reference
https://forum.shotcut.org/t/fail-to-open-file-on-drives-other-than-c/702

What's interesting is that "something" was changing in previous versions of
Shotcut such that "drag and drop" failed across partitions, but in my case
I'm not doing a drag and drop and I'm not crossing partitions and I'm using
the (almost) latest software so, it "could" be the problem - but it might
not be.

Nonetheless, I think I'll just give up on getting Microsoft Windows 10 to
just right click on a video to open up a file in the desired video editor
since the solution I have now works in a few steps instead of in one smooth
step - but the effort to smooth it out isn't really worth it at this point.

Thanks!

On 5/10/2017 6:16 AM, harry newton wrote:
What I want is what everyone wants, which is the ability to right click on
any given file type (e.g., MP4 & MKV) and then have a context-sensitive
"open with Whatever" (for whatever program people want there).

In my case, I want "Open with Shotcut" *only* when I right click on MP4 and
MKV files (or any video file - but not a text file for example).


So you want some files types (MP4, MKV) to show "Open With ShortCut",
while the rest to just show the regular "Open With"? Um.....

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He who is Mr. Man-wai Chang said on Fri, 6 Oct 2017 21:46:53 +0800:

So you want some files types (MP4, MKV) to show "Open With ShortCut",
while the rest to just show the regular "Open With"? Um.....

This is a quite normal request to want the "Open With" to be cognizant of
the file type, and something which, as I recall, WinXP did out of hand.

It's only Windows 10 that lost the long-standing context-menu ability to
easily right-click open a given file type using a given selection of apps.

It's there in Windows 10, but in a brain-dead format which is the strangest
thing since you'd think Microsoft would move forward instead of backward
from WinXP functionality.

On 6/10/2017 10:44 PM, harry newton wrote:
This is a quite normal request to want the "Open With" to be cognizant of
the file type, and something which, as I recall, WinXP did out of hand.

It's only Windows 10 that lost the long-standing context-menu ability to
easily right-click open a given file type using a given selection of apps.

It's there in Windows 10, but in a brain-dead format which is the strangest
thing since you'd think Microsoft would move forward instead of backward
from WinXP functionality.

Do you mind using Command Prompt? Just create some batch files to do it.

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/( _ )\ May the Force and farces be with you!
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He who is Mr. Man-wai Chang said on Sat, 7 Oct 2017 02:44:15 +0800:

Do you mind using Command Prompt?
Just create some batch files to do it.

I appreciate your help and advice, and I state that I've pretty much given
up on trying to get Windows to repeat the beloved right-click
context-sensitive menu lost functionality.

The question was borne out of the incredularity that Windows 10 couldn't
simply do something as simple as right-click open-with Shotcut for video
files (which I don't remember being impossible on WinXP).

As for non-ideal workarounds, I already implemented multiple workarounds,
such as adding the ability to run Shotcut from the command line:
Start Run shotcut
Using the classic registry edit of:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\shotcut.exe
Default = "C:\apps\editor\vid\shotcut\shotcut.exe"

And the ability to pull up Shotcut from the right-click (non-context) menu:
HKCR\*\shell\Open with Shotcut\command\
Default = C:\path\shotcut.exe %1 %*

And of course I have a shortcut link in my cascaded start menu:
C:\data\menus\editors\video\shotcut\shotcut.lnk

And I could always wade through the right-click context-sensitive inane
series of idiotic repetitively non-intelligent menus that Microsoft
provides as less-than-fully-functional equivalents for the original WinXP
right-click context-menu capabilities.

So I've given up on the simple XP functionality of right clicking on video
files to open directly in Shotcut until/unless that functionality starts
working in Windows 10 in the future.

On 7/10/2017 8:30 AM, harry newton wrote:
....
So I've given up on the simple XP functionality of right clicking on video
files to open directly in Shotcut until/unless that functionality starts
working in Windows 10 in the future.

Thank you for taking the time to reply me.

--
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He who is Mr. Man-wai Chang said on Sat, 7 Oct 2017 20:56:11 +0800:

Thank you for taking the time to reply me.

I realize that even that prior reply was missing the Windows conundrum.

Here's how to reproduce the fundamental Windows "open-with" conundrum:
http://i63.tinypic.com/2ljhiyu.jpg
1. Create an empty file named "foo.jpg" & "foo.mp4".
2. Right click on "foo.jpg" & I get reasonable options for editors.
3. Right click on "foo.mp4" & the editing options I get are unreasonable.

Note: Editors and viewers are (sometimes) completely different things.
Note: The default viewer isn't necessarily the default editor.

All I want are reasonable options for editing of both jpg & mp4 files.
Why can't Windows 10 do something as simple as that?

Or is it me?
If it's me, that's fine.

Q: What do I need to do to get Windows to *add* Shotcut as a video editor?
http://i63.tinypic.com/2ljhiyu.jpg

On 7/10/2017 9:46 PM, harry newton wrote:

All I want are reasonable options for editing of both jpg & mp4 files.
Why can't Windows 10 do something as simple as that?

Or is it me?
If it's me, that's fine.

Not you, but the job you are doing. That WinXP "Open With Shortcut"
feature might save you a lot of time.

Do you edit and process videos all time?

--
@~@ Remain silent! Drink, Blink, Stretch! Live long and prosper!!
/ v \ Simplicity is Beauty!
/( _ )\ May the Force and farces be with you!
^ ^ (x86_64 Ubuntu 9.10) Linux 2.6.39.3
�借貸! ��騙! ��交! �打交! �打劫! �自殺! 請考慮綜� (CSSA):
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He who is Mr. Man-wai Chang said on Sat, 7 Oct 2017 22:22:40 +0800:

Not you, but the job you are doing. That WinXP "Open With Shortcut"
feature might save you a lot of time.

I should be clear that it takes only seconds to open up Shotcut, without
any file, and then "File Open File" the desired file to edit.

Also, I already implemented the suggested "Send To" right click method, so
that works.

It's just frustrating that a right-click context menu in Windows 10 is so
brain dead.

And, what's more frustrating is that I don't yet *understand* why.

What's odd is that the right-click choices for editing images is fine.
It's just that the right-click choices for editing video are missing.
http://i63.tinypic.com/2ljhiyu.jpg

Do you edit and process videos all time?

Nope. I actually rarely edit videos. Currently I'm using Shotcut to edit a
video so I'm opening it a lot, but I play videos all the time where the
default video player is *never* going to be Shotcut.

Micrsoft doesn't seem to understand there is a difference between editors
and players, but nonetheless, that's why there is a list of options to use
to "open" a file.

The only question is what the process is to add any particular option to
the right-click context menu for "Open With" {Shotcut, fooeditor.exe, or
whatever the user wants).

What's frustrating is that adding a set of video editors to the right-click
"open with" selection should be trivial and yet I don't know how to do it.