How to implement file icon overlay in java, the way, e.g., turtoisesvn or dropbox do

Question

I am looking for the best (fast and easy to implement, not necessary most robust) way to overlay file icons in Windows 7 Explorer from a prototype written in java. I have seen on SO questions on the icon overlaying in Net and Python, none for java.

Answer 1

I'm affraid this cannot be entirely done in java. You must create and register a COM object that implements the IExtractIcon interface among other things, and associate it with the files you want to manage. more info here