Shell extensions in C# and/or VB.NET
Please, repeat with me.
I WILL NEVER WRITE SHELL EXTENSIONS IN C# OR VB.NET.
Not even if Dino Esposito suggests it.
It’s bad for many reasons.
Shell extensions are loaded in almost every application you run (read : every application with a file open dialog or save or browse for folder…). If your shell extension is written in a .NET language (C#, VB.NET, but also Managed C++, C++/CLI) you simply inject the whole CLR in almost every application.
This has these consequences :
- In a managed program your shell extension could find itself to run under a different CLR version than expected. Unless your shell extension is CLR-1.0 it’ll probably fail to run.
- In a mixed mode program which loads a managed module in a second step (for instance a plugin) your shell extension could have forced a different CLR version to load and cause the application to fail.
- Visual Studio 2002 or 2003 could fail to debug an otherwise perfectly debuggable program if .NET Framework 2.0 or 3.0 is installed. This is because VS2002/3 fail to debug applications using CLR 2.0+ (you must use 2005), but it could get loaded because of your extension. You can use a manifest file to force CLR1.x to be loaded but it’s feasible only for your internal use, not for distribution.
So essentially, writing a shell extension in .NET is a good way to break applications and debuggers randomly.
It’s sad but UI in shell extensions must be written in p(l)ain C++.. 
:(
References :
- http://blogs.msdn.com/junfeng/archive/2005/11/18/494572.aspx
- http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=125283&SiteID=1
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