Detecting file-selection in Windows Explorer [closed]

Question

In Windows, either on the desktop or in Windows Explorer, I want to detect the moment when a file or folder is selected (highlighted). When that happens, I want to display a message box showing the file or folder's full name.

If there are multiple items selected, I want to display all of them.

Note that my solution must be written in C#.

Answer 1

Take a look at this example to get the mouse click or selected events:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7222749/i-created-a-program-to-hide-desktop-icons-on-double-click-of-desktop-but-would-o

Join that with the following code, Remember to add reference to SHDocVW.dll and Shell32.dll this will return all the selected items and folders paths in every explorer.

public void GetListOfSelectedFilesAndFolderOfWindowsExplorer()
    {
        string filename;
        ArrayList selected = new ArrayList();
        var shell = new Shell32.Shell();
        //For each explorer
        foreach (SHDocVw.InternetExplorer window in new SHDocVw.ShellWindows())
        {
            filename = Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(window.FullName).ToLower();
            if (filename.ToLowerInvariant() == "explorer")
            {
                Shell32.FolderItems items = ((Shell32.IShellFolderViewDual2)window.Document).SelectedItems();
                foreach (Shell32.FolderItem item in items)
                {
                    MessageBox.Show(item.Path.ToString());
                    selected.Add(item.Path);
                }
            }
        }
    }

Answer 2

Just adding somethings to Renier's answer:

• SHDocVW.dll and Shell32.dll are in the folder C:\Windows\System32
• If you get error at SHDocVw.ShellWindowsClass() just right-click on the SHDocVw reference on your Solution Explorer then select Properties and set Embed Interop Types to false