Question

How to select an existing folder (or create new) from a native Win32 application?

Here is a similar question. It has a good answer for C#/.NET. But I want the same thing for native Win32.

Anybody knows a solution, free code, etc?

Update:

I tried the function from the answer. Everything worked as expected, except it is necessary to call the SHGetPathFromIDList function to retrieve the name of selected directory. Here is a sample screen shot:

Answer 1

SHBrowseForFolder

Do your users a favor, and set at least the BIF_NEWDIALOGSTYLE flag.

To set the initial folder, add the following code:

static int CALLBACK BrowseFolderCallback(
                  HWND hwnd, UINT uMsg, LPARAM lParam, LPARAM lpData)
{
    if (uMsg == BFFM_INITIALIZED) {
        LPCTSTR path = reinterpret_cast<LPCTSTR>(lpData);
        ::SendMessage(hwnd, BFFM_SETSELECTION, true, (LPARAM) path);
    }
    return 0;
}

// ...
BROWSEINFO binf = { 0 };
...
binf.lParam = reinterpret_cast<LPARAM>(initial_path_as_lpctstr); 
binf.lpfn = BrowseFolderCallback;
...

and provide a suitable path (such as remembering the last selection, your applications data folder, or similar)