Question

I need the reference system32/shell32.dll as I use some shell functions to read out the recycling bin. I tried “Add Reference –> COM –> Microsoft Shell Controls and Automatation” and “Add Reference –> Browse —> [going to the system32/shell32.dll directly]. Both adds the shell32 reference to my references. But when I look at the properties, I see the path of the reference looks like this: “C:\Users\Tim\Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Projects\Wing\FileWing\obj\Debug\Interop.Shell32.dll” …

I’ll not deploy this \obj\Debug\ path to my installer. So how can I reference the end-users shell32.dll directly? Is there a way? Why does VS2008 create this strange path? Can I change this path so it doesn’t sit in this strange subfolder?

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Hmmm. Okay after revisiting PInvoke, I’m sure that I don’t quite get it :-/

Let me illustrate the code I need to handle. I’m digging though the recycling bin and seek for a item that I want to recover. Is there any way NOT fighting though the PInvoke to get this done?

    private void recoverRecyclerBinEntry(string fileName, int size)
    {
        try
        {
            Shell Shl = new Shell();
            Folder Recycler = Shl.NameSpace(10);

            // scans through all the recyclers entries till the one to recover has been found
            for (int i = 0; i < Recycler.Items().Count; i++)
            {
                FolderItem FI = Recycler.Items().Item(i);
                string FileName = Recycler.GetDetailsOf(FI, 0);
                if (Path.GetExtension(FileName) == "")
                    FileName += Path.GetExtension(FI.Path);
                //Necessary for systems with hidden file extensions.

                string FilePath = Recycler.GetDetailsOf(FI, 1);
                string combinedPath = Path.Combine(FilePath, FileName);

                if (size == FI.Size && fileName == combinedPath)
                {
                    Debug.Write("Match found. Restoring " + combinedPath + "...");
                    Undelete(FI);
                    Debug.WriteLine("done.");
                }
                else
                {
                    Debug.WriteLine("No match");
                }
            }
        } 
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            Debug.WriteLine(ex.Message);
            Debug.WriteLine(ex.StackTrace);
        }
    }

    private bool Undelete(FolderItem Item)
    {
        try
        {
            foreach (FolderItemVerb FIVerb in Item.Verbs())
            {
                if (
                    (FIVerb.Name.ToUpper().Contains("WIEDERHERSTELLEN")) ||
                    (FIVerb.Name.ToUpper().Contains("ESTORE")) ||
                    (FIVerb.Name.ToUpper().Contains("NDELETE"))
                    )
                {
                    FIVerb.DoIt();
                    return true;
                }
            }
            //execute the first one:
            Item.Verbs().Item(0).DoIt();
            return true;
        }
        catch (Exception)
        {
            Debug.WriteLine("ERROR undeleting");
            return false;
        }
    }

Answer 1

I believe you are looking for P/Invoke (Platform Invoke)

Once you get the method for including and using the DLLs down, you can visit pinvoke.net to get specific code snippets for using certain methods.