Windows Explorer in C#

Sample Image

Introduction

This is the first in a series of articles demonstrating how to create an Explorer-like application. The program uses the following controls: TreeView, ListView, Splitter, MainMenu, StatusBar, Panel, ImageList, and ColumnHeaders for the ListView. Many of the properties are set using the designer, so I would suggest that you download the project, unless of course you are not a beginner.

The program demonstrates the following:

How to read files and directories from disk, using the DirectoryInfo instance class.
How to populate nodes in a TreeView Control.
How to populate the ListView Control.
How to use a basic StatusBar.
How to use the After_Select Event of the TreeView Control.
How to use the Item_Activate Event of the ListView Control.
How to use the Load Event of the Form itself.

What I think is best about this program

It is a simple design, which should help you to learn how to use the TreeView Control, It took four revisions.
Compared to many of the other sample or demo programs available, it loads files and directories fast!
The program only loads the necessary files and folders, not the entire directory tree like many demos do.
The TreeView's Tag property is entirely unused in this implementation, leaving you a place to put something.
There is only one event, and two methods which drive the TreeView control.
This program uses a minimal amount of string chopping, unlike many other demos in it's class.

In closing

This program is designed to show the basics to the beginner, experts will have to wait until I become an expert! There are too many hard decisions to make when designing an Explorer Interface. So I have made some trade offs to keep the code as readable as possible. I plan to remove the "hard coded" stuff in future releases.

One of the hardest decisions was to start the root directories at the Drive level instead of nesting under the Desktop\MyComputer nodes, which is what Windows Explorer does. You will also notice that I have turned off the "+" and "-" indicators on the TreeView, this was by design as the code to make this work properly is pretty complex for a beginner, not too mention doubling the code.

I am disappointed that .NET does not have an easy way (maybe there is) too determine the type of drives attached to the computer. I wanted to use PInvoke, but I figured I would do that in another series or update.

If anyone has any comments please send email: russell@tymer.net

License

This article has no explicit license attached to it but may contain usage terms in the article text or the download files themselves. If in doubt please contact the author via the discussion board below.
A list of licenses authors might use can be found here

About the Author

Russell Mangel

Web Developer

United States

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My vote of 5 nekimiro 21:32 4 Apr '12

Very simple and nice to use

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Navigate to a node maro009 10:34 6 May '11

Great example thank a lot

I have just a small question, i would like to add a text box using it as a navigation pane
so i would like to type a folder path then the tree view will auto expand and select the path

Do you know how can i do that?

Thanks for your help

Mike

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windows exploler ajay1z1 19:31 3 Jan '11

great example it helps me very much.

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imagelist problem pipicuit 13:36 6 Jan '09

i am really wondering how did you load or put those XP icons to the imagelist? I tried to load those ico directly from imagelist properties, but when i run the code, those icons look ugly (outline) whereas when i run your code, icons look just perfect.

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Re: imagelist problem Russell Mangel 16:16 8 Jan '09

I did nothing special at the time, I just added the icons as you did. However, at that time I was using Visual Studio 2002 (I think that was .NET Framework 1.0).

I duplicated your problem by opening the project and converting it to Visual Studio 2008. I was able to fix the problem by fiddling with the imagelist properties.

Try this:

Modify the properties of ImageList:

ColorDepth = Depth32Bit

If that doesn't work, try changing:

ImageSize = 32

If this doesn't solve your problems, I suggest that you do some googling for treeview and imagelist icon problems. Many people have been complaining about this exact problem. The problem was not a problem in 2002, but now it is, so Microsoft obviously changing some things in imagelist.

Russ.

Russell Mangel
Las Vegas, NV

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Dummy Windows Explorer and Windows Context Menu Member 3643694 22:46 6 Sep '08

Hi

Thanks for your code. This is really helpful. But is there any way to cloning the windows explorer. I mean to say The listview which can show the windows context menu on reght clicking on any file or folder. I am not talking about any custom context menu. But the same as windows context menu by useing any Win32API or Shell32API?

Debashis Pal
Wipro Technologies

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Web Based Version Jim Brooks 12:21 28 May '08

Here is a web control that does basically the same thing:
http://www.DigitalTools.com/GVT.aspx[^]

Jim

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Great example but... sharpiesharpie 13:32 16 Feb '07

Your way of getting the drives was all wrong...you just assumed that the floppy drive would be A, and the fixed ones would be C,D, therefor it showed a floppy drive named A in your program even though i don't even have one.

you can use the DriveInfo class in order to get the drive type.

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Re: Great example but... Russell Mangel 11:23 18 Feb '07

Thanks for the comments.

When I wrote this code back in 2002 (wow it's been 5 years), for .NET version 1.0 there was no pure c# way to get drive types except for using wmi namespace and wmi is really slow, so I just hard-coded them.

I really should post a new version for .NET 2.0. As you mentioned there is a new DriveInfo class in .NET 2.0 that does have drive type enumeration.

Faster performance for getting Files and Directories.

When dealing with directories that have hundreds of thousands of files, it is more efficient to get the files and directories in one pass, you can use FileSystemInfo class for this. However, when calling the attributes property (to determine if the object is a file or folder), then performance is terrible.

For extreme File and Directory performance, use pinvoke and the FindFirstFile or(FindFirstFileEx) WinAPI method.

Have a good day.

Russ

Russell Mangel
Las Vegas, NV

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Re: Great example but... Programm3r 22:26 18 Nov '07

Something like this ....

private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) { // This routine adds all computer drives to the root nodes of treeView1 control /* Get all the logical drives on the computer */ DriveInfo[] aDrives = DriveInfo.GetDrives(); treeView1.BeginUpdate(); foreach (DriveInfo d in aDrives) { //TreeNode dnMyDrives = new TreeNode(strDrive.Remove(2, 1)); TreeNode dnMyDrives = new TreeNode(d.Name); switch (d.DriveType) { case DriveType.CDRom: dnMyDrives.SelectedImageIndex = 2; dnMyDrives.ImageIndex = 2; break; case DriveType.Fixed: // The next statement causes the treeView1_AfterSelect Event to fire once on startup. // This effect can be seen just after intial program load. C:\ node is selected // Automatically on program load, expanding the C:\ treeView1 node. treeView1.SelectedNode = dnMyDrives; dnMyDrives.SelectedImageIndex = 1; dnMyDrives.ImageIndex = 1; break; case DriveType.Removable: dnMyDrives.SelectedImageIndex = 0; dnMyDrives.ImageIndex = 0; break; case DriveType.Network: dnMyDrives.SelectedImageIndex = 5; dnMyDrives.ImageIndex = 5; break; default: dnMyDrives.SelectedImageIndex = 3; dnMyDrives.ImageIndex = 3; break; } treeView1.Nodes.Add(dnMyDrives); } treeView1.EndUpdate(); }

The only programmers that are better that C programmers are those who code in 1's and 0's

Programm3r
My Blog: ^_^

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Re: Great example but... MrColeyted 12:01 23 Feb '08

Hello. I am a new member here. I am a student learning C#. I have gotten alot out of this demo. However, I do have a question. I have changed the case structure to check the drive type. However, now the drive letter is gone. Can anyone tell me a good way to use the driveType enumeration and still maintain the drive letter in the treeview. Thanks!

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C# Windows Explorer tdittmer 0:56 5 Jan '07

Just like to say this is one of the best examples I have seen.

Its easy to work out exactly what is going on and shows the power of .NET, brilliant.

It would be nice if you could produce the rest of the series

Regards

Tom

UK - (Liverpool F C Rule)

Sign In·View Thread·Permalink 4.00/5 (2 votes)

Re: C# Windows Explorer Russell Mangel 20:38 5 Jan '07

Thanks for the kind comments, I wrote this code many years ago.

A couple of things:
1. Don't try to put 150,000 files in the listview, try to keep the number of items to less than 10,000 rows. If you need to put large amounts of files, you should use a different control like the dataGridView (.Net 2.0). Or better yet, use the DevExpress GridControl (it does sorting). However this grid is not free.

2. If you need to sort on all the columns, you will have to implement your own sorting, there are a few examples around (including one from microsoft). But they are *super* slow , so once again if you need this type of functionality, it is much easier to use a data grid control.

3. The ListView is a nice control, when your application needs a simple list.

Russell Mangel
Las Vegas, NV

Russell Mangel
Las Vegas, NV

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Windows Explorer in C# Sagar Joshi 2:44 25 May '06

Short and sweet...this is a very good example...helped me a lot...thanks

Sagar

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Doesn't sort the directory names Lyle M 4:33 9 Feb '06

I tried this app on our network and found that it doesn't seem to sort the directory names. I looked at the DirectoryInfo docs and it doesn't state the order in which directories are retrieved or if there is a method to sort the directories. Do you know how to make it pull in alpha order?

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showplusminus said_tambal 2:58 19 Sep '04

hi

thanx for this nice code, im a beginenr and it helps alot to understand,

but i dont understand why showplusminus = true doeasnt shows the plus and minus always, it first shows them when i click on a node, how to fix that?

bye

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Nice Example Roger Wright 22:42 10 May '03

Simple, but elegant. I like that - it appeals to the engineer in me. When will you be finishing the "series?"

"Please don't put cigarette butts in the urinal. It makes them soggy and hard to light" - Sign in a Bullhead City, AZ Restroom

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Re: Nice Example Russell Mangel 19:56 8 Jun '03

Thanks for the comment. I was a novice .neter back when I wrote this code, I was hell bent on finding the fastest performance, I must have spent 3-4 months fiddling with treeview control source code, I studied everyone's code and used idea's from all of them.

I was going to post another Inherited "TreeNode" version of Windows Explorer in C#. Even today, when I use the treeview control, I almost always use a derived TreeNode, and then add properties to the node.

I didn't get much response on Windows Explorer in C#. So I don't know if I will post the inherited version or not.

If you are interested leave your email address, I could email you the source code.

Russell Mangel
Las Vegas, NV

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Re: Nice Example Jonathan de Halleux 0:02 23 Oct '03

Russell Mangel wrote:
I was going to post another Inherited "TreeNode" version of Windows Explorer in C#. Even today, when I use the treeview control, I almost always use a derived TreeNode, and then add properties to the node.

I would be intereset on looking at this example

Nice tutorial, filled my needs.

Jonathan de Halleux.

www.pelikhan.com

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Re: Nice Example Chris Walsh 15:09 4 Apr '04

I would also like to see the TreeNode version posted next to this one.

Very good example of PURE .NET code. Not like the DllImport versions.

Very Nice...

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Small fix .... Dejan Petrovic 17:00 10 Jun '02

First of all I would like to say that I like your explorer solution. It's pretty much written in pure .NET, without any usage of underlying interop, which is still everybodies habit in these early days. However, it seems that with .NET sometimes we just can't escape from 'reaching back to the old technology'.
There is a problem with your accessment of logical drives. You assume that C:\ drive is fixed drive and A:\ drive is removable drive. It's highly likely that it is the case, but you can't be sure. Those logical drives need to be tested for their types:

[DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
public static extern long GetDriveType(string driveLetter);

private void Form_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
string[] aDrives = Environment.GetLogicalDrives();
treeView1.BeginUpdate();
foreach(string strDrive in aDrives)
{
TreeNode dnMyDrives = new TreeNode(strDrive.Remove(2,1));
dnMyDrives.SelectedImageIndex = (int) GetDriveType(strDrive);
dnMyDrives.ImageIndex = (int) GetDriveType(strDrive);
}
treeView1.EndUpdate();
}

This assumes that image list indices are in accordance with the GetDriveType return values.
Regards,

Dejan Petrovic

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Re: Small fix .... Russell Mangel 20:03 8 Jun '03

Thanks for the comment.
You are correct about the C:\ drive and A:\ drive, the example was designed to be simple, and I didn't think it appropriate to add PInvoke code to such a simple example. The Icons would also be incorrect if the drive letters were not typical.

You could also use WMI code to get the drive types, it's a little slower than PInvoke, but it is pure .NET code.

Russell Mangel
Las Vegas, NV

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Re: Small fix .... schoeneck 2:55 28 Jan '04

You could also use a VBScript Interop providing this.

Then you could use the FileSystemObject and call its GetDriveType method.

----
xasx

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Re: Small fix .... pfievhn 16:26 3 Jun '06

When I use USB Flash Disk, your program use the same image in image list to display both Floppy Disk and USB Flash Disk.I want they have diffrent image. How can I do?

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Small fix to your small fix... OICU81TOO 9:31 28 Nov '06

In the foreach loop you forgot to add the new node you are creating to the tree view...

string[] aDrives = Environment.GetLogicalDrives();
treeView1.BeginUpdate();
foreach (string strDrive in aDrives)
{
TreeNode dnMyDrives = new TreeNode(strDrive.Remove(2, 1));
dnMyDrives.SelectedImageIndex = (int)GetDriveType(strDrive);
dnMyDrives.ImageIndex = (int)GetDriveType(strDrive);

treeView1.Nodes.Add(dnMyDrives); // <-- Need This line added!
}
treeView1.EndUpdate();

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