In my application I can programmatically open explorer and select a file using the following code:
void BrowseToFile(LPCTSTR filename)
{
CString strArgs;
strArgs = _T("/select,"");
strArgs += filename;
strArgs += _T(""");
ShellExecute(0, _T("open"), _T("explorer.exe"), strArgs, 0, SW_NORMAL);
}
My problem is that if I call this function a second time with a different file, but in the same folder, the selection in explorer does not change to the new file, but remains on the previous file.
For example, if I call my function with C:pathofile1.txt
, a new explorer window will open and file1.txt
will be selected. If I call my function a second time with C:pathofile2.txt
, the existing explorer window will be activated, but the selection will still be on file1.txt
.
Is there a way to force explorer to update the selection or a better way to accomplish this?
EDIT:
The behavior mentioned above was on Windows XP. It seems the behavior on Vista / Win7 is different. Each call will open a new instance of explorer and select the file.
My main goal is to replicate the Visual Studio option to Open Containing Folder of a document. This feature in Visual Studio behaves the same on XP, Vista, and Win7. It will not create a new instance if another instance with the same folder is already open, but it will update the selection to the new file.
If anybody knows how Visual Studio accomplishes this I would love to know about it.
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