Invoke "Nios II Command Shell" in your development folder using a right-click

It can be tedious to invoke a "Nios II Command Shell" in a specific folder having a long path, because if you invoke it from the start menu "start->altera->nios ii eds->nios ii command shell", the current path (PWD) will be in the NIOS examples folder and you may have a long cd: path to do to get to your projects folder.

But, if you add a few keys to the registry, you can invoke it from any folder by right-click'ing the folder in explorer:

Copy the script code section below into a file with any name but its extension must be .reg and run it.

It assumes that your installtion is the Altera default. If not, simply update the path to the "Nios II Command Shell.bat" in the code. Remember \ has to be escaped to \\.

You'l have to have administrator priviliges and acknowledge the warning that the registry is about to be edited.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
@="NIOS II command shell here"
@="\"C:\\Altera\\91\\nios2eds\\Nios II Command Shell.bat\" \"%l\""

Now you just right-click in your development folder and select the nios command shell here and the command window appears with the path set correctly to your project, ready to go.

For some reason it only works as expected in Win7 if you select the folder in the right pane of explorer. In WinXP it works in both panes.

To remove the function you can manually delete the keys listed in the script using regedit, or crate a .reg file with the lines:

 
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

and run it.

When you some day update to another version of Quartus/NIOS, you will have to manually edit the path to the new installation either directly using regedit or by updating the script with the new path and running it again. No need to delete the old key value - it will be overwritten.

I have posted this before, but been unable to find it again in the forum, but I thought it may still be of use. At least I needed it after changing computer recently.

Enjoy.