Question

using (var openFileDialog1 = new OpenFileDialog())
        {
            openFileDialog1.Reset();
            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(ExcelFilePath))
            {
                string fileName = Path.GetFileName(ExcelFilePath);
                string fileExt = Path.GetExtension(ExcelFilePath);
                //Avoid "you can't open this location using this program file" dialog 
                //if there is a file name in the path strip it )
                if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(fileName))
                    initialDirectory = Path.GetDirectoryName(ExcelFilePath);  
      //if not let it be   
                else
                    initialDirectory = ExcelFilePath;

            openFileDialog1.InitialDirectory = initialDirectory;
            }
            else
                openFileDialog1.InitialDirectory = "c:\\";
            openFileDialog1.Filter = "Excel files (*.xls or *.xlsx)|*.xls;*.xlsx";
            //openFileDialog1.Filter = "xls files (*.xls)|*.xls|xlsx files(*.xlsx)|.xlsx";
            openFileDialog1.FilterIndex = 2;
            openFileDialog1.RestoreDirectory = false;
            openFileDialog1.CheckFileExists = true;
            openFileDialog1.CheckPathExists = true;
            if (openFileDialog1.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
            {
                var browseSelectionMade = BrowseSelectionMade;
                if (browseSelectionMade!=null)
                    browseSelectionMade(this, new DataEventArgs<string>(openFileDialog1.FileName));
            }
        }

Regardless of whether or not I set RestoreDirectory to true, I will always browse to the LAST used directory if my initial directory is set to a path that doesn’t exist. Where is the last used directory saved by OpenFileDialog? And is there a way to override this behavior? (e.g. I always want to set it to C:\ if the initial directory doesn’t exist?)

Answer 1

Where is the last used directory saved?

It is stored in the registry. The exact location depends on the Windows version, for Win7 it is HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ComDlg32. A quick look with regedit ought to convince you that you don’t want to mess with that.

The simple workaround is to provide a valid path. If the one you calculate isn’t valid, Directory.Exists returns false, then provide a valid one. Like the Documents folder returned by Environment.GetFolderPath(). Then again, nothing wrong with the last used one either, the user will easily recognize it with good odds that it happens to be close to the desired one.