What happens if you right click on an application/program in Windows, and click "Print"? I accidentally almost did this when I right clicked a program icon to open from the desktop, but accidentally clicked "Print". I closed out before proceeding. I am very curious if it would do anything bad, or maybe just print the icon, but am wary to try it on my own system :-). I am asking here because if it does do something bad, admins may want to be aware of any negative effects that could happen. I did a Google search and didn't see anything helpful.
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what do you mean print ? like print screen ? print on paper ? – Eric Jul 01 '19 at 01:26
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2Curious; I don't even get the option. At any rate, it is unlikely to be harmful, except perhaps by wasting paper. You could try printing to the Microsoft XPS Document Writer if you are curious. – Harry Johnston Jul 01 '19 at 01:48
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@Eric Print to paper – Jonathan Jul 01 '19 at 11:05
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A program (exe file) wouldn't have a "Print" option when right clicked. So you may be mixing the stuff you right clicked?
Ümit Yayla
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Nothing happens. Its weird that you got that option i have Never seen it before. You must of right clicked a logo of a application or you must of right clicked a word doc and hit print. Anyways thats how you learn how to do stuff through trial and error.
Eric
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If the program supports the "Print" verb and told this to Windows Explorer, Windows will show you the "Print" option in the context menu when you right-click on a file/shortcut supported by the program.
Basically, Windows starts a specific command to tell the program that the user wants to print this document. For example, if it's a Word document, you can find the Print command definition here in the registry:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Document.12\shell\Print\command
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Root\Office16\WINWORD.EXE" /i "%1"
You can learn more about this implementation here: https://docs.microsoft.com/fr-fr/windows/desktop/shell/context-menu-handlers#completing-verb-implementation-tasks
Note that if you select more than 15 documents, the print command won't be available to prevent any "problems".
Swisstone
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Yes, but under what circumstances will an .exe file have a Print option in its right-click menu? – Harry Johnston Jul 01 '19 at 21:24
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1Probably because "something" added the Print verb on executable files, look here: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\Print If the Print key exists, you can check which command is started (if any) – Swisstone Jul 02 '19 at 09:29