My program sets "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced"
value "Hidden"
. Hovewer I'm not able to refresh the explorer to take into account this change. I've tried:
1)
SHChangeNotify(SHCNE_ASSOCCHANGED, SHCNF_IDLIST, IntPtr.Zero, IntPtr.Zero);`
2)
SHELLSTATE state = new SHELLSTATE();
state.fShowAllObjects = (uint)1;
SHGetSetSettings(ref state, SSF.SSF_SHOWALLOBJECTS, true);
3)
SendMessageTimeout(HWND_BROADCAST, WM_SETTINGCHANGE, SPI_SETNONCLIENTMETRICS, 0, SMTO_ABORTIFHUNG, 5000, ref dwResult);
4)
SendMessage(HWND_BROADCAST, WM_COMMAND, 28931 /* Refresh */, 0);
Nothing works. So what should I do? If I refresh Explorer myself with F5, then it works. Hovewer I would like some elegant solution, so it would refresh the display everywhere, even in OpenFile
/SaveFile
dialogs, which are currently open.
I'm using C# .NET, Win7.
As Anders
pointed out, there is a simple way to refresh explorer windows using COM:
Guid CLSID_ShellApplication = new Guid("13709620-C279-11CE-A49E-444553540000");
Type shellApplicationType = Type.GetTypeFromCLSID(CLSID_ShellApplication, true);
dynamic shellApplication = Activator.CreateInstance(shellApplicationType);
dynamic windows = shellApplication.Windows();
for (int i = 0; i < windows.Count; i++)
windows.Item(i).Refresh();
So this part is done. Hovewer I still need to refresh the OpenFile
/SaveFile
dialogs, and the code above doesn't do that. Does anybody know how to refresh those dialogs?
An important point is that if I change the "Show Hidden Files" in Folder Options in Control panel, those OpenFile
/SaveFile
dialogs are not refreshed by the system, I must refresh them manually using F5. I'm just looking for a method how to refresh all those dialogs using C#, so I don't need to press F5 anymore...
Ok, so new problem with the code above - it refresh not only windows explorers, but also internet explorers... Any idea how to refresh windows explorers ONLY?
Alternatively, you can press the Ctrl, Alt, and Del keys at the same time and select Task Manager. Click More details. Find and click Windows Explorer, and click Restart in the lower right corner.
Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete or Windows Key + X and click Task Manager. Right-click on Windows Explorer and click Restart. If you don't see Windows Explorer, click on More details. If your taskbar disappears, press the Windows key.
I figured out a way to check if the windows was a Windows Explorer window, and don't have enough of a rep to add a comment so thought I'd submit it as an answer to help you out because this question helped me out.
// based on http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2488727/refresh-windows-explorer-in-win7
Guid CLSID_ShellApplication = new Guid("13709620-C279-11CE-A49E-444553540000");
Type shellApplicationType = Type.GetTypeFromCLSID(CLSID_ShellApplication, true);
object shellApplication = Activator.CreateInstance(shellApplicationType);
object windows = shellApplicationType.InvokeMember("Windows", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, null, shellApplication, new object[] { });
Type windowsType = windows.GetType();
object count = windowsType.InvokeMember("Count", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.GetProperty, null, windows, null);
for (int i = 0; i < (int)count; i++)
{
object item = windowsType.InvokeMember("Item", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, null, windows, new object[] { i });
Type itemType = item.GetType();
// only refresh windows explorers
string itemName = (string)itemType.InvokeMember("Name", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.GetProperty, null, item, null);
if (itemName == "Windows Explorer")
{
itemType.InvokeMember("Refresh", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, null, item, null);
}
}
I don't know about Open/Save dialogs, but you can get a list of open explorer windows with COM automation, the Shell.Application object has a collection of windows, or CoCreate IID_IShellWindows directly, each window in the list has a refresh method.
WSH/JScript:
for(var sw=new ActiveXObject("Shell.Application").Windows(),i=0;i<sw.Count; ++i)
sw.Item(i).Refresh();
I don't know about C#, but here are examples dealing with shell windows in WSH/JScript and c++
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