Detecting file-selection in Windows Explorer

Question

In Windows, either on the desktop or in Windows Explorer, I want to detect the moment when a file or folder is selected (highlighted). When that happens, I want to display a message box showing the file or folder's full name.

If there are multiple items selected, I want to display all of them.

Note that my solution must be written in C#.

Have you read [this](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4921413/get-selected-file-or-folder-in-windows-explorer) or [this](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3382946/get-selected-items-of-folder-with-winapi/3400348#3400348)? — khellang, Nov 18 '12 at 01:45
thanyou,khellang,yes,i'v read them.but i still confused.i need a clear C# code. — ohsorry, Nov 18 '12 at 02:45
dose anyone can help me?In Window 7,there is a detail bar in the bottom of Explorer window,when user select a file,the bar will show some more detail information about the file. that is exactly what i want to do. — ohsorry, Nov 18 '12 at 04:53
The correct way to do this is not to try to inject additional content into Explorer but rather to host Explorer yourself (ExplorerBrowser object) and listen for selection events. — Raymond Chen, Mar 15 '13 at 21:46
This might be a related question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8292953/get-current-selection-in-windowsexplorer-from-a-c-sharp-application — maximpa, Mar 26 '13 at 03:10

score 5 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 27 '20 at 01:01

Take a look at this example to get the mouse click or selected events:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7222749/i-created-a-program-to-hide-desktop-icons-on-double-click-of-desktop-but-would-o

Join that with the following code, Remember to add reference to SHDocVW.dll and Shell32.dll this will return all the selected items and folders paths in every explorer.

public void GetListOfSelectedFilesAndFolderOfWindowsExplorer()
    {
        string filename;
        ArrayList selected = new ArrayList();
        var shell = new Shell32.Shell();
        //For each explorer
        foreach (SHDocVw.InternetExplorer window in new SHDocVw.ShellWindows())
        {
            filename = Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(window.FullName).ToLower();
            if (filename.ToLowerInvariant() == "explorer")
            {
                Shell32.FolderItems items = ((Shell32.IShellFolderViewDual2)window.Document).SelectedItems();
                foreach (Shell32.FolderItem item in items)
                {
                    MessageBox.Show(item.Path.ToString());
                    selected.Add(item.Path);
                }
            }
        }
    }

does this find files highlited on desktop? – jazz Jun 08 '20 at 16:51 — jazz, Jun 08 '20 at 16:51

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 16 '17 at 23:15

2

Just adding somethings to Renier's answer:

SHDocVW.dll and Shell32.dll are in the folder C:\Windows\System32
If you get error at SHDocVw.ShellWindowsClass() just right-click on the SHDocVw reference on your Solution Explorer then select Properties and set Embed Interop Types to false

answered Oct 16 '17 at 23:15

Nguyen Minh Hien

455
7
10

1

If you use `SHDocVw.ShellWindows()` instead of `SHDocVw.ShellWindowsClass()` then you won't have to fiddle with the "Embed Interop Types" setting. See https://stackoverflow.com/a/4174056/1172352. – peterflynn Apr 27 '20 at 01:00

Detecting file-selection in Windows Explorer

2 Answers2