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 ...

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 ...

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, ...