How to open SHS files

Well, as I said, the facility has been removed from Windows Vista and later.

However, an experiment here suggests that if you have no alternative, you can restore the ability to read Shell Scrap files by copying the shscrap.dll file and its associated Windows registry entries from a Windows XP system to a 32-bit Windows 7 system. Even then, only some of the functionality seems to be there - when you drag a .shs (Scrap file) from a Windows Explorer folder to a Word document, you see a "Package object icon" rather than the original content. However, after you have copied shscrap.dll, you can at least double-click on that icon to open the original Word document scrap. NB, each scrap is associated with the program that originally created it, so you will need all the programs you used to create the scraps in order to re-use them.

AIUI Shell Scraps were removed because (a) it was perceived that not many people used them and (b) the scrap mechanism was an easy way to introduce a virus to a machine.

So overall, IMO if you still have your old Win XP system, you would be much better off finding all the scraps you really want on that system, opening them, and saving them in a format you can use on your Windows 7 system, then forget about using Shell Scraps. If you have no alternative, you can try the following, but

 a. you will still need to find a copy of shscrap.dll somewhere. I certainly would nt download one from the Internet.

 b. I'd make sure your system is backed up

 c. if you have never worked with the Windows registry before, please read e.g. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310516/en-us (even that is a bit out of date)

 d. the procedure as descrbed here will only work on 32-bit Windows, I think, and assumes your Windows folder is actually called c:\Windows. You'll probably need Administrative privileges.

 e. I would still advise that you locate the scraps you need, convert them, then remove shscrap.dll and its registry entries. 

Here we go:

 1. copy shscrap.dll from c:\Windows\system32 on a Windows XP system to c:\Windows\system32 on your Win 7 system

 2. copy the text between the "----------" lines below into Notepad, then save the file as "scraps.reg"

 3. Start c:\Windows\regedit.exe

 4. Use File->Import to import scraps.reg

Here's the registry import file text:

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Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.shs]

@="ShellScrap"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ShellScrap]

@="Scrap object"

"NeverShowExt"=""

"FriendlyTypeName"=hex(2):40,00,25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,\

  00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,\

  32,00,5c,00,73,00,68,00,73,00,63,00,72,00,61,00,70,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,\

  00,2c,00,2d,00,32,00,35,00,38,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ShellScrap\DefaultIcon]

@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\

  00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,73,00,68,00,\

  73,00,63,00,72,00,61,00,70,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,2d,00,31,00,30,\

  00,30,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ShellScrap\shell]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ShellScrap\shell\open]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ShellScrap\shell\open\command]

@=hex(2):72,00,75,00,6e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,33,00,32,00,20,00,25,00,53,00,79,\

  00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,\

  73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,73,00,68,00,73,00,63,00,72,00,61,\

  00,70,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,4f,00,70,00,65,00,6e,00,53,00,63,00,\

  72,00,61,00,70,00,5f,00,52,00,75,00,6e,00,44,00,4c,00,4c,00,20,00,25,00,31,\

  00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ShellScrap\shellex]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ShellScrap\shellex\DataHandler]

@="{56117100-C0CD-101B-81E2-00AA004AE837}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{56117100-C0CD-101B-81E2-00AA004AE837}]

@="Shell Scrap DataHandler"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{56117100-C0CD-101B-81E2-00AA004AE837}\InProcServer32]

@="shscrap.dll"

"ThreadingModel"="Apartment"

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