Adding cygwin on right click on windows explorer

Question

I wish to add a command on right click menu in explorer that opens current directory with cygwin.

For same I have successfully added these registries:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\classes\directory\shell\cygwin]
@="c:\\cygwin\\bin\\bash.exe --login -i -c \"cd '%1'; bash\""

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\classes\drive\shell\cygwin]
@="c:\\cygwin\\bin\\bash.exe --login -i -c \"cd '%1'; bash\""

but this adds the command only when on some folder or drive. I want generic right click on explorer, on which, search gives me this registry to edit:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell\cygwin]
@="c:\\cygwin\\bin\\bash.exe --login -i -c \"cd '%1'; bash\""

My problem lies with the value of the key, which doesnt work on %1 but on some static value like /cygdrive/c

Could someone please tell me the proper way to pass current directory to the command, also please refer me some basic and advanced pages for same.

Answer 1

Better option - No registry edit -- http://perfect-blog-url.blogspot.com/2013/04/open-cygwin-with-right-click-no.html

On Win 7:

1. Install Cygwin with the 'chere' package.
2. Right click and Open Cygwin as Administrator.
3. type "chere -i" or "chere -i -t mintty" if you would like to use Mintty which I personally prefere.

Answer 2

I think this is what the chere package does. Instead of tweaking the registry entries yourself, it might be easiest just to install that.

Answer 3

This is actually better than Cygwin’s chere in my opinion because it only launches once instance of bash.exe. If you look in Task Manager you will notice chere requires 2 instance of bash.exe to work. Not a huge deal but unecessary and annoying.

'directory', 'directory\background', 'drive' |
% {'cmd /c start /d "%v" bash' | ni -f hklm:\software\classes\$_\shell\bash\command}

Source

Answer 4

This is an extension to what @user219318 has posted. If that does not work, you may use this option.

Run the cygwin.bat as 'Run as administrator' and type the following command. You may replace the 'bash' below with your favourite shell, to view the list of shells do cat /etc/shells

chere -i -s bash

Or if you want mintty

chere -i -t mintty -s bash