Spectrogram Context Menu

A lightweight Windows 10/11 utility that adds Show spectrogram to the context menu of audio files. It generates a detailed PNG spectrogram with FFmpeg, adds frequency and time axes, audio metadata, and opens the result in your default image viewer.

Russian installation guide

Highlights

• A single self-installing SpectrogramContextMenu.exe distribution file.
• Per-user installation without administrator privileges or regsvr32.
• MP3, FLAC, WAV, OGG, M4A, AAC, WMA, OPUS, APE, and AC3 support.
• 1280 x 720 logarithmic intensity spectrograms.
• Sample rate, bitrate, format, codec, filename, frequency, and time labels.
• Install, update, repair, and uninstall modes in the same executable.
• FFmpeg is discovered through PATH and is never bundled or downloaded.

Requirements

• Windows 10 or Windows 11 x64.
• ffmpeg.exe and ffprobe.exe available through PATH.

Verify FFmpeg in a new Command Prompt:

where ffmpeg.exe
where ffprobe.exe

Both commands must print a full path. If you recently changed PATH, sign out of Windows and sign back in so File Explorer receives the updated environment.

Installation

1. Download SpectrogramContextMenu.exe from the latest release.
2. Run the downloaded executable.
3. Right-click a supported audio file and choose Show spectrogram.

The app installs itself to:

%LocalAppData%\Programs\SpectrogramContextMenu

It registers only under HKEY_CURRENT_USER, so UAC elevation is not required. On Windows 11, the command is located under Show more options because this release uses a safe static shell verb instead of an in-process Explorer DLL.

Maintenance

Running a newer downloaded EXE installs the update over the existing version. The following command-line modes are also available:

SpectrogramContextMenu.exe /repair
SpectrogramContextMenu.exe /uninstall

You can also uninstall the utility from Windows Installed apps.

Build

Open x64 Native Tools Command Prompt for VS 2022, change to the repository directory, and run:

build.bat

The resulting SpectrogramContextMenu.exe is created in the repository root.

Alternatively, use CMake:

cmake -S . -B build -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64
cmake --build build --config Release

The CMake output is build\Release\SpectrogramContextMenu.exe.

How it works

The executable serves as both installer and runtime application. Installation copies it into the current user's profile and creates static shell verbs under HKCU\Software\Classes\SystemFileAssociations. Selecting the command starts the installed EXE with the audio file path. FFmpeg creates %TEMP%\spec.png, then GDI+ adds labels and metadata before the image is opened.

No code is injected into explorer.exe.

License

Licensed under the MIT License.