The answer of Metro Smurf (thanks to which I got where I wanted to be) suggests the right approach . You could simply hook up to the SelectedItemChanged event of the Treeview. Then cast the e.NewValue passed in the eventhandler as TreeViewItem, and access its IsExpanded property to set it to true.
void MyFavoritesTreeView_SelectedItemChanged(object sender, RoutedPropertyChangedEventArgs<object> e)
{
((TreeViewItem)e.NewValue).IsExpanded = true;
}
Then for the final touch, you can also hook up the items in your Treeview by casting them as TreeViewItem as suggested, and then you can hook up to the various manipulation events, like:
var item = tv.SelectedItem as TreeViewItem;
item.Expanded += item_Expanded;
And then do whatever you need to do in the eventhandler
void item_Expanded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
// handle your stuff
}