OverviewFrom my past posts about implementing your own Shell Namespace, there have been some great questions posted by readers.  Many of these stem from the fact that the Namespace example is fairly simple in that it does not implement all of the behavior that is possible in Explorer.  This was done to focus on the core steps in getting ...

OverviewIn my earlier post, I showed how to create a Shell Namespace Extension using the default IShellView implementation (also known as DefView).  One thing you might have noticed from the sample is that the Commands Module is void of even the default items such as “Organize” and “Views”.  If you are developing ...

Many developers who have used Shell APIs have had at one time or another used SHFileOperation in their code.  SHFileOperation is used to perform copy, move, rename and delete operations on items in the file system.  It is an entry point into the Shell’s copy engine and is the same API used by Windows Explorer to perform file ...

In past versions of Windows, when a user encountered a file that is in use by another process, he would be presented with an unfriendly dialog like this:What process is using this file?  What should the user do?  There is nothing actionable for the user on this dialog.  Some savvy users may use a utility to determine which process ...

OverviewWhen implementing a Shell namespace extension, a developer must provide an object that implements the IShellView interface. However, Microsoft® Windows® provides a default implementation of IShellView known as the System Folder View Object (colloquially known as DefView), that can be used in place of a custom implementation. This ...

Building Your First TaskDialog (Part 3) Jeff Miller - October 16, 2006 UPDATE: October 17, 2006 -- made a bunch of changes based on guidelines feedback from Everett McKay.  Also made source code downloadable by request of Ales Holecek. Thanks to both of them! Whoa, it's been almost a month since the last installment of this ...

Several people here and elsewhere have been asking why the Aero Basic window frame looks like it does, and why it is different from the Aero frame (especially the caption buttons).    I won't give the technical explanation for every single detail here (that would be extremely boring), but I'll try to give you some answers. ...

Part 2:  The most common mistakes in using SHFileOperation For my second installment, I thought it would be helpful to point out the most common coding mistakes I've seen with SHFileOperation.  1.  Always double-null terminate your pathsThis is the most common error so I am listing it first.  The SHFILEOPSTRUCT takes a ...

For any developer building on Windows, you know there are two ways to build a dialog – roll your own using a dialog template or use MessageBox(). Ugh. We’re just begging developers to go the easy route and use MessageBox to cram a paragraph of text into an error dialog! Don’t get me wrong, MessageBox is great for very simple ...

Over the years, I have seen many questions being asked on newsgroups and developer forums concerning the SHFileOperation API.  This API allows developers to perform file operations such as Copy, Move, Rename and Delete as well as provide rich UI for confirmation, error and progress dialogs.  The API uses a struct named SHFILEOPSTRUCT, ...