Shell MegaPack + EZShellExtensions Case Study : TyphoonTools

Company

TyphoonTools
Web Site : http://www.typhoontools.com/

Company Information

TyphoonTools provides useful, easy to use desktop applications and services. They offer a range of free quality software programs, free high quality desktop wallpaper, free file delivery services, and even two internet radio stations!

Problem

Requirement of file/folder browsing UI controls which provide complete Windows Explorer functionality including thumbnail view, a treeview of files/folders and advanced customization capabilities. Requirement of a framework for fast and easy development of shell extensions to achieve seamless integration of the utilities with Windows Explorer.

Solution

Shell MegaPack ActiveX, along with EZShellExtensionsMFC, was able to meet all these requirements and is used in the development of three of their popular utilities :

TyphoonWallpaper – An easy to use desktop wallpaper manager, that supports dual monitors and cycles your desktop wallpaper images automatically.
TyphoonCopy – A power tool for performing large file copy operations, using wild card inclusion and exclusion filters.
TyphoonZip – A full featured zip utility, offering zipping and unzipping of files, creation of self-extracting EXEs, full shell integration and drag and drop functionality.

EZShellExtensionsMFC was used to develop a context menu extension for TyphoonZip so as to achieve seamless integration of the software with Windows Explorer.

These are some comments from Mr. Scott Thede, Senior Software Developer at TyphoonTools :

" LogicNP’s Shell Mega Pack and EZShellExtensionsMFC products have allowed us to quickly develop products that would have taken us months to develop otherwise. With features like thumbnail viewing, treeview controls, and the ability to highly customize those controls, we were able to make our products look and work better than we ever thought we could. LogicNP’s products are truly a life saver, we simply would not have been able to have made our products work or look as good as they do now without them. Worth every penny, that’s for sure."

FileView ActiveX Control from Shell MegaPack used in thumbnail view to display images from the disk.

FolderView ActiveX Control from Shell MegaPack used to display a treeview of files/folders.

FileView ActiveX from Shell MegaPack used to display contents of the zip file.

Contextmenu extension developed using EZShellExtensionsMFC to achieve Windows Explorer integration.