SendTo Recomposed

A modern, Unicode-only re-implementation of the classic SendTo+ helper for Windows.
Compared with the original project, this version is faster, 64-bit clean and shows custom folder icons in the popup.
Licensed under GPL v3. The name of this project is a tribute to that album.

Key Ingredients

• Unicode-only – no ANSI/TCHAR branches – predictable builds
• Dark mode ready – native dark-theme support
• Custom folder icons – honours desktop.ini for nicer menu visuals
• Lazy icon resolution – icons are resolved on-demand
• Persistent icon cache – optional on-disk cache
• Secure recursion – hidden/system items skipped, depth capped to 5
• Robust drag-and-drop – real IDataObject / IDropTarget COM interfaces
• Clean shutdown – no GDI, COM or image-list leaks
• High-DPI aware – PerMonitorV2 scaling on Windows 10+
• Custom SendTo directory – override default via /D <directory> switch
• Native 64-bit – compiled and tested for x86_64 with no WOW64 redirection issues

Requirements

• Minimum OS: Windows 7 (the binary targets _WIN32_WINNT_WIN7)
• Dark mode: Windows 10 version 1809 or later (automatically detected; safely skipped on older builds)
• Compiler: MSVC with C11 support (the source uses designated initialisers, <stdbool.h>, and compound literals)

Building

MSVC

rc /r sendto.rc

cl /O2 /MD /DUNICODE /D_UNICODE ^
   sendto.c ^
   ole32.lib shell32.lib shlwapi.lib comctl32.lib user32.lib gdi32.lib uuid.lib

mt -nologo -manifest sendto.manifest -outputresource:sendto.exe;#1

Note: the build requires sendto.rc (resource script) and sendto.manifest (DPI / common-controls manifest) – both are included in the repository alongside sendto.c.

The output sendto.exe is fully 64-bit.

Usage

1. Prepare the sendto folder

Create a folder called sendto next to the executable and populate it with shortcuts (.lnk), executables, or sub-folders that represent your "Send To" targets. Example layout:

C:\Tools\
├── sendto.exe
└── sendto\
    ├── Notepad++.lnk
    ├── 7-Zip.lnk
    ├── Scripts\
    │   ├── compress.bat
    │   └── upload.ps1
    └── Folders\
        ├── Project A.lnk
        └── Backup.lnk

2. Run

Run the executable – a Send To style popup appears under the cursor with every item (and sub-folder) from the sendto folder.

3. Command-line switches

Switch	Description
/D <directory>	Use a custom directory instead of the sendto folder next to the executable
/C	Enable the persistent icon cache (sendto.cache is written next to the executable). Speeds up repeated launches by caching resolved icon bitmaps to disk
/? or -?	Display a usage help message

Examples:

sendto.exe
sendto.exe /D "D:\My Shortcuts" /C
sendto.exe /C "%1"

4. Interact

Either click an entry to launch it, or drag files onto the menu and drop them on a target to perform the same action Explorer would.

How It Works

The program follows a straight-line flow:

1. Initialise – OleInitialize, common controls, SHGetDesktopFolder, dark-mode opt-in.
2. Parse command line – extract /D, /C, /? switches; remaining arguments are treated as source files for drag-and-drop.
3. Enumerate – EnumerateFolder walks the sendto directory recursively (up to depth 5), building a Win32 popup menu. File icons are not resolved here – only directory icons are fetched eagerly.
4. Display – TrackPopupMenuEx shows the menu at the cursor. As each submenu opens, WM_INITMENUPOPUP lazily resolves shell icons (optionally hitting the persistent cache first).
5. Act on selection:
   • No file arguments → ShellExecuteExW opens the target; the new window is located by PID and forced to the foreground.
   • With file arguments → a COM IDataObject is built from the source paths, an IDropTarget is obtained for the chosen menu entry, and a programmatic DragEnter → Drop (or DragLeave) is performed. A WinEvent hook captures the foreground window activated by the drop so it can be brought forward.
6. Tear down – persist the icon cache (if dirty), release COM objects, uninitialise OLE.

Context-Menu Integration

To register SendTo Recomposed in the Windows right-click menu for files and folders, create this .reg:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

; ── Add "Send To+" for all files
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\SendToRecomposed]
@="Send To+"
"Icon"="\"%ProgramFiles%\\SendTo Recomposed\\sendto.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\SendToRecomposed\command]
@="\"%ProgramFiles%\\SendTo Recomposed\\sendto.exe\" \"%1\""

; ── Add "Send To+" for folders
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\SendToRecomposed]
@="Send To+"
"Icon"="\"%ProgramFiles%\\SendTo Recomposed\\sendto.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\SendToRecomposed\command]
@="\"%ProgramFiles%\\SendTo Recomposed\\sendto.exe\" \"%1\""

Steps:

1. Copy sendto.exe into C:\Program Files\SendTo Recomposed\.
2. Save the above as add-context-menu.reg and double-click to merge into your registry.
3. Right-click any file or folder and select Send To+.

To unregister, create a .reg with these deletions:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\SendToRecomposed]
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\SendToRecomposed]

License

This code is released under the GNU General Public License v3.0. See LICENSE for full text.

Credits

• Original concept & code © 2017 lifenjoiner
• Complete refactor & modernisation © 2025 DSR! – xchwarze@gmail.com