Image Resizer Powertoy Clone 2.0 in the Works

Over this past week, I have been working hard to get my Image Resizer Powertoy Clone for Windows working on Vista x64. I have tried every tweak I could think of to get the current version working, but to no avail.

I believe that the problem is due to the fact that the project is written in C#/.NET. When a .NET Assembly is registered as a COM object, it uses mscoree.dll as the in-process server to handle communication between COM clients and the .NET Assembly. I suspect that this file is a 32-bit DLL and, thus, cannot be loaded into the 64-bit explorer.exe. (EDIT: That statement was not true.) ...or at least that's my theory.

I have taken this opportunity to dust off my C++/WIN32 skills. I am rewriting the entire application in C++ (the way it should have been done in the first place). In a few weeks, I expect to have a working 64-bit version of the shell extension. I am also going to further investigate problems people have had with it not working in versions of Windows prior to XP (I know what the problem is, but I never could get it resolved).

Along with these new upgrades, I am playing with the idea of moving the project to CodePlex. It's kind of ironic that I would let Microsoft host a project I stole from them, but SourceForge is a nightmare to deal with these days.