What does SHGFI_USEFILEATTRIBUTES mean?

re: What does SHGFI_USEFILEATTRIBUTES mean?

Jack Mathews — Tue, 01 Jun 2004 14:42:00 GMT

This was so handy for a program where I needed to enumerate all of the file types in the system way back when.

Just go through .* in HKCR, get the icon for that type, then map them to their proper names and display them. I was so happy the day I found this function :)

re: What does SHGFI_USEFILEATTRIBUTES mean?

Henk Devos — Tue, 01 Jun 2004 14:51:00 GMT

Are you sure that you can't pass "???.txt"?
I would usually pass "*.txt" to this function and that seems to work.

re: What does SHGFI_USEFILEATTRIBUTES mean?

njkayaker — Tue, 01 Jun 2004 14:57:00 GMT

Too bad there isn't a way of doing something similar to get the executable used to edit the file (sort of like FindExecutable).

re: What does SHGFI_USEFILEATTRIBUTES mean?

njkayaker — Tue, 01 Jun 2004 14:58:00 GMT

Then, again, maybe AssocQueryString would work for that.

re: What does SHGFI_USEFILEATTRIBUTES mean?

Raymond Chen — Tue, 01 Jun 2004 15:12:00 GMT

Henk: It may work today but it won't work in Longhorn. The first parameter is supposed to be a valid filename.

njkayaker: Yes I believe a variation on AssocQueryString will do the trick.

re: What does SHGFI_USEFILEATTRIBUTES mean?

J. Edward Sanchez — Tue, 01 Jun 2004 15:25:00 GMT

How about just ".txt"? It's a valid filename, after all. Even though Explorer won't let you create it, Explorer will correctly recognize it as having the ".txt" extension (and a blank name).

If it works, then you've saved yourself a whopping full character of unnecessary bloat!

re: What does SHGFI_USEFILEATTRIBUTES mean?

Len Weaver — Tue, 01 Jun 2004 15:50:00 GMT

Hey Ray, could you give us an example of a filetype whose icon changes depending upon its contents? I've never heard of such a thing before. Thanks.

re: What does SHGFI_USEFILEATTRIBUTES mean?

Raymond Chen — Tue, 01 Jun 2004 15:52:00 GMT

Sure you have - you just don't realize it. *.lnk files for example. *.exe for another. *ico for a third.

re: What does SHGFI_USEFILEATTRIBUTES mean?

Henk Devos — Tue, 01 Jun 2004 16:02:00 GMT

Good that you clarified that.
I don't remember where i got the "*.txt", but i certainly didn't invent this myself, and i think it is widely used like this.

re: What does SHGFI_USEFILEATTRIBUTES mean?

Centaur — Tue, 01 Jun 2004 16:11:00 GMT

Some time ago, in times before XP and Me, there was a “tip” that had you set your icon for .bmp to %1. It gave you a slowdown on directories that contained many bitmaps, but you got to know just by looking what a picture was about.

re: What does SHGFI_USEFILEATTRIBUTES mean?

Mike Dunn — Tue, 01 Jun 2004 23:40:00 GMT

Setting the icon to %1 only works if there is an icon handler shell extension registered for that file type.

Getting the icon for a given file extension

Flawless Code — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 18:54:46 GMT

Getting the icon for a given file extension