SshOpenHere

When working against a remote machine, the flow of "open File Explorer → navigate to a network share → open a terminal → remember the remote path" gets old quickly. SshOpenHere removes almost all of it: right-click a network folder and pick "Open SSH terminal here".

What it does

A minimal Windows 11 Modern Context Menu extension that adds a first-level entry to the right-click menu. When triggered, it opens a channel in Windows Terminal that runs ssh, auto-switching to the folder’s corresponding remote directory.

Design choices

• Native C++ implementing IExplorerCommand; package identity via a Sparse Package so it shows up in the Win11 first-level menu.
• Registers both Directory and Directory\Background contexts.
• Only network locations — it checks for a UNC prefix or DRIVE_REMOTE and hides everywhere else (local folders, Desktop, This PC).
• For background clicks Explorer doesn’t pass a selected item, so it resolves the folder via IObjectWithSite — the blank-area case works too.
• No submenus, no resident process, and it doesn’t touch other context-menu entries.
• The uninstaller also cleans the old registry-based Win10 menu.

How it maps paths

A mapped drive like U:\ or a UNC path is converted back into the remote filesystem path (U:\ → ~/..., UNC → ~/...) by a small script before the SSH command is launched.

Build

Requires Windows 11 (Build 22621+, verified on 26200), Visual Studio 2026 with the C++ desktop workload, Developer Mode for Sparse Package registration, and passwordless SSH configured. From the project root:

build.bat

Use build.bat debug to enable logging (writes %TEMP%\sshcontext.log) when troubleshooting path resolution. Then install.ps1 registers/unregisters the extension.