I found some examples and topics on this forum about the way to implement an icon overlay handler with Python 2.7 & the win32com package but it does not work for me and I don't understand why.

I create the DLL and I have no error when I register it. I have also tried directly with the script but it's the same. It's like the class is never called.

Here is the code:

import win32traceutilfrom win32com.shell import shell, shellcon
import pythoncom
import winerror
import osREG_PATH =r'Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers'
REG_KEY = "GdIconOverlayTest"class GdClass:_reg_clsid_='{512AE200-F075-41E6-97DD-48ECA4311F2E}'_reg_progid_='GD.TestServer'_reg_desc_='gd desc'_public_methods_ = ['GetOverlayInfo','GetPriority','IsMemberOf']_com_interfaces_=[shell.IID_IShellIconOverlayIdentifier, pythoncom.IID_IDispatch]def __init__(self):passdef GetOverlayInfo(self):return (os.path.abspath(r'C:\icons\test.ico'), 0, shellcon.ISIOI_ICONFILE)def GetPriority(self):return 0def IsMemberOf(self, fname, attributes):print('ismemberOf', fname, os.path.basename(fname))if os.path.basename(fname) == "hello.text":return winerror.S_OKreturn winerror.E_FAILdef DllRegisterServer():print "Registering %s" % REG_KEYimport _winregkey = _winreg.CreateKey(_winreg.HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, REG_PATH)subkey = _winreg.CreateKey(key, GdClass._reg_progid_)_winreg.SetValueEx(subkey, None, 0, _winreg.REG_SZ, GdClass._reg_clsid_)print "Registration complete: %s" % GdClass._reg_desc_def DllUnregisterServer():print "Unregistering %s" % REG_KEYimport _winregtry:key = _winreg.DeleteKey(_winreg.HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, r"%s\%s" % (REG_PATH, GdClass._reg_progid_))except WindowsError, details:import errnoif details.errno != errno.ENOENT:raiseprint "Unregistration complete: %s" % GdClass._reg_desc_if __name__=='__main__':from win32com.server import registerregister.UseCommandLine(GdClass,finalize_register = DllRegisterServer,finalize_unregister = DllUnregisterServer)

Hi and thanks for your answer. I have tested with a log file and also win32traceutil. The registration/unregitration messages are logged. The registry entries are also created under:

1/HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers\GD.TestServer 2/ HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions\Approved 3/ directly under class root.

I have also added some logs inside the methods getOverlayInfo, GetPriority and isMemberOf but I can't see a trace when I browse through the explorer.

My configuration is: Python 2.7 pywin32-214.win32-py2.7.exe Windows XP SP 2

You can download all the code here:

problem solved. i guess something was badly initialized but now it works.

My wish is to make something like the dropBox service.

i need to be able to update the icon of a given file according to its upload status. I will create a class for each state (uploading, uploaded, failed) that will implements the IID_IShellIconOverlayIdentifier interface. But then...

should i write the list of files that are currently uploading/failed_to_upload in local files the check the presence of each file into the isMemberOf method to determine the good icon to display? Is it the best way to do that or it would be better for instance to store all the file path inside a key in the registry?

Thanks for your help.