Why does OpenFileDialog change my working directory? Should i assume many func in System.Windows.Forms will change my working directory?
OpenFileDialog open = new OpenFileDialog();
open.Filter = filter;
a = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory(); //<-- correct
if (open.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK) //-- select a file on my desktop
{
a = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory(); //<-- incorrect, is set to my desktop
What we have discovered in a current project is that the OpenFileDialog no longer changes the current directory, making the property .RestoreDirectory obsolete. The code in the application used to change the current directory whenever we opened a file(when running in Windows XP). It no longer does that in Windows 7. As a result it broke our application because now our dataset does not know which directory the file is in when we attempt to deserialize it by using the filename without the full path. Just a word of caution if you plan to migrate to windows 7.
The current working directory can change during runtime, yes.
Consider using
Directory.GetParent(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location)
or
System.AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory
when you need your applications directory.
It is a pain, although in some ways you might anticipate it... if you go into an open dialog multiple times (in an app) you often find it where you last left it.
If it impacts your code, you could take a snapshot of GetCurrentDirectory() before going into the dialog, and restore it afterwards (so your code doesn't see the change). You might want to store the user's working directory separately (and swap them) so that the user also gets their expected behaviour.
for Why in XP the filedialog change the current directory , it's better to ask MS. anyway the open file dialog in XP has this strange behavior ,but in w7 or higher not. so you can simply set the current directory after you saved the path selected from SaveFileDialog taht it change the current directory.
I post my method where you can see that the path chosed is saved to settings and reset the current directory
private void ShowSaveFileDialog(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
private const int xpVerMajorNumber = 5;
var saveFileDialog = new SaveFileDialog()
{
FileName = Settings.Default.ExcelFileName,
DefaultExt = "*.xlsx",
Filter = "Excel Workbook (.xlsx)|*.xlsx"
};
if (saveFileDialog.ShowDialog(this) == true)
Settings.Default.ExcelFileName = saveFileDialog.FileName;
if (Environment.OSVersion.Version.Major <= xpVerMajorNumber)
{
Directory.SetCurrentDirectory(System.AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory);
}
}
