How to customize a folder programatically on Windows 7

Question

Windows 7 offers the possibility to customize folder icons and pictures by right clicking on the folder, choosing the "Properties" command and then the "Customize" tab, as explained for example here.

Can this be done programatically ?

Answer 1

Yes, you can create a desktop.ini file programmatically. The file is documented here.

You could, for instance, rename the folder in an internationalization scenario (e.g. a folder named "users" could me displayed to the user as utilisateurs on a French OS, or Benutzer on a German OS), by creating a file with the following contents:

[.ShellClassInfo]
LocalizedResourceName=@C:\foo\bar.dll,-100

which would take the name of the folder in the bar.dll string resource ID 100.