Using Modern IFileDialog Open/Save dialog with Delphi 7 apps under Win10/11

Question

I would like to modernize the GUI of my Delphi 7 App, I have already .manifest file and it looks quite good, but the Fileopen dialogs are terrible. How the make them modern?

I am using this code at the moment. What would it require to use e.g. IFileOpenDialog instead, how to compile the header for that, or any tweaks to dialogs.pas ?

FileOpenDialog := TOpenDialog.create(parent);
FileOpenDialog.DefaultExt := '*.x';
FileOpenDialog.Filter := 'my|*.x|Text File (CSV)|*.csv'; 
FileOpenDialog.options := [ofHideReadOnly,ofFileMustExist  ,ofNoChangeDir,ofPathMustExist   ];
if FileOpenDialog.Execute then begin
    // do my tricks with FileOpenDialog.filename
    FormUpdate;
end;

The following example code of IFileDialog cannot be compiled with D7:

var
  FolderDialog : IFileDialog;
  hr: HRESULT;
  IResult: IShellItem;
  FileName: PChar;
  Settings: DWORD;
begin
  if Win32MajorVersion >= 6 then
    begin
      hr := CoCreateInstance(CLSID_FileOpenDialog,
                   nil,
                   CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER,
                   IFileDialog,
                   FolderDialog);

      if hr = S_OK then
        begin
          FolderDialog.SetOkButtonLabel(PChar('Select'));
          FolderDialog.SetTitle(PChar('Select a Directory'));

          hr := FolderDialog.Show(Handle);
          if hr = S_OK then
            begin
              hr := FolderDialog.GetResult(IResult);

              if hr = S_OK then
                begin
                  IResult.GetDisplayName(SIGDN_FILESYSPATH,FileName);
                  ConfigPathEdit.Text := FileName;
                end;
            end;
        end;
    end;

Answer 1

I used this one, I tested it with D7.

// uses commdlg
function OpenSaveFileDialog(      Parent: TWinControl;
                            const DefExt,Filter,InitialDir,Title: string;
                              var FileName: string;
                                  MustExist,OverwritePrompt,NoChangeDir,DoOpen: Boolean): Boolean;
     var ofn: TOpenFileName;
         szFile: array[0..MAX_PATH] of Char;
   begin
         Result := False;
         FillChar(ofn, SizeOf(TOpenFileName), 0);
         with ofn do
           begin
           lStructSize := SizeOf(TOpenFileName);
           hwndOwner := Parent.Handle;
           lpstrFile := szFile;
           nMaxFile := SizeOf(szFile);

           if (Title <> '') then
              lpstrTitle := PChar(Title);

           if (InitialDir <> '') then
              lpstrInitialDir := PChar(InitialDir);

           StrPCopy(lpstrFile, FileName);
           lpstrFilter := PChar(StringReplace(Filter, '|', #0,[rfReplaceAll, rfIgnoreCase])+#0#0);

           if DefExt <> '' then
              lpstrDefExt := PChar(DefExt);
           end;

         if MustExist then
            ofn.Flags := ofn.Flags or OFN_FILEMUSTEXIST;

         if OverwritePrompt then
            ofn.Flags := ofn.Flags or OFN_OVERWRITEPROMPT;

         if NoChangeDir then
            ofn.Flags := ofn.Flags or OFN_NOCHANGEDIR;

         if DoOpen
            then begin
                 if GetOpenFileName(ofn) then
                    begin
                    Result := True;
                    FileName := StrPas(szFile);
                    end;
                 end
            else begin
                 if GetSaveFileName(ofn) then
                    begin
                    Result := True;
                    FileName := StrPas(szFile);
                    end;
                 end;
    end;

procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
      VAR FilSelez : String;
    begin
          If OpenSaveFileDialog(Form1,'','*.*','c:\windows','',FilSelez,False,False,True,True) Then
             Edit1.Text := FilSelez;
    end;

Answer 2

Instead of using the IFileDialog interface you can also just modify Delphi's 7 Dialogs.pas file to display the "modern" dialogs. First make a backup copy of the Dialogs.pas file in the Source\VCL folder under the Delphi installation directory. Then search the file for the term OFN_ENABLEHOOK. The complete line should be Flags := OFN_ENABLEHOOK;. Comment out the line. Add a new line Flags := 0; directly below. Now search for the term OFN_ENABLETEMPLATE. Two lines above this should be an if Template <> nil then statement. Comment out this statement and all following ones up to and including hWndOwner := Application.Handle; and add the line hWndOwner := Screen.ActiveForm.Handle;.

Now make sure to replace the precompiled units Dialogs.dcu in the Lib and SLib directory under the Delphi installation directory with newly compiled Dialogs.dcu containing the changes. In the Lib directory you store a version without debug information, while the SLib directory contains a version with debug information. Make backup copies of the files before replacing them.

Please take note that the instructions given above only apply to Delphi 7. Furthermore, the code disables event handling for the common dialog components.