Hello my fellow readers, if you are a fan of foobar2000 like me and like portable programs, this post might be for you! I’m going to explain to you how to make foobar2000 portable with Shell extension support in few simple steps!

We all know that due to the decision of the creator of foobar2000, it doesn’t allow you to register extensions if you install foobar2000 as portable. But as it turns out, it’s very very simple to make it working with your Windows and Explorer. Here’s how:

1. Download and install latest foobar2000 version from foobar2000.org/download
2. Start the setup. When installing, choose Portable installation and install wherever you want (Example: D:\foobar2000)
3. Start the setup again and this time, choose Standard installation and install it to the default location (Example: C:\Program Files (x86)\foobar2000)
4. Open a new Explorer window and go to Standard installation folder (In this case it’s C:\Program Files (x86)\foobar2000)
5. Copy these 3 files to your Portable folder: foobar2000 Shell Associations Updater.exe, ShellExt32.dll, ShellExt64.dll
6. Uninstall Standard installation foobar2000
7. Open a new Explorer window and go to your Portable installation folder (In this case it’s D:\foobar2000)
8. Rename the file portable_mode_enabled to something
9. Start the foobar2000.exe in your Portable folder
10. Go to File > Preferences > Shell Integration and click Manage file type associations
11. Choose the extensions you want to register
12. After the register, close your Foobar2000 and rename something to portable_mode_enabled.
13. Start foobar2000 again.

Aaaaand that was it! I was very excited about it when I found this trick and I hope it will help you guys too. Enjoy!

References

• https://www.hydrogenaud.io/forums/index.php?showtopic=90599