I have searched but cannot find a function that can close a folder in vb.net. You can kill a running app by finding its handle/windows-title/id, then issuing process.kill() command, but the same does not work on folders. For example, suppose:
C:\downloads\videos\
is open on my computer and I want to programmatically close it. How do I do that?
Make a folder in your c disk names Test
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim myfolder As String = "C:\Test"
Dim OpenFolder As Object = CreateObject("shell.application")
For Each item In OpenFolder.Windows
'ComboBox1.Items.Add(item.document.folder.self.Path)
If item.document.folder.self.Path = myfolder Then
item.Quit()
End If
Next
End Sub
I see your dilemma: open folders are just one part of the explorer.exe process. Killing that process would have undesirable side effects. To get around this, you have to send the right command to that process, instead of just killing it.
One place I would look to accomplish this is the SendKeys class. You might be able to focus the window and send the Alt-F4 keys to close just that window.
Related
I have done a simple VB application with this code:
Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
Dim procName As String = Process.GetCurrentProcess().ProcessName
Dim processes As Process() = Process.GetProcessesByName(procName)
If processes.Length > 1 Then
Process.GetProcessesByName("keyinput")(0).Kill()
End If
End Sub
Public Sub type(ByVal int As Double, str As String)
For Each c As Char In str
SendKeys.Send(c)
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(int * 1000)
Next
End Sub
Sub vai()
Dim line As String = ""
If File.Exists("trans.txt") Then
Using reader As New StreamReader("trans.txt")
Do While reader.Peek <> -1
line = reader.ReadLine()
type(0.155, line)
'SendKeys.Send(line)
SendKeys.Send("{ENTER}")
Loop
End Using
File.Delete("trans.txt")
End If
End Sub
Private Sub Timer1_Tick(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Timer1.Tick
vai()
End Sub
Basically the timer in it check if a file exists, read it and type the content simulating the keyboard.
I want this exe to start automatically when user login, it does it, apparently, I can see the form1 pop up but doesn't really works. Everyting is fine only if I run it manually by double-clicking the icon. Why and what can I do? Thanks
ps. i already tried to execute it with windows task manager, or putting a shortcut in the windows startup folder, or calling it from a cmd
EDIT:
when app starts automatically , process is running, but windows form is showing like this
Instead starting manually is showing like this:
I don't know this for a fact but I suspect that the issue is the fact that you are not specifying the location of the file. If you provide only the file name then it is assumed to be in the application's current directory. That current directory is often the folder that the EXE is in but it is not always and it can change. DO NOT rely on the current directory being any particular folder. ALWAYS specify the path of a file. If the file is in the program folder then specify that:
Dim filePath = Path.Combine(Application.StartupPath, "trans.txt")
If File.Exists(filePath) Then
Using reader As New StreamReader(filePath)
EDIT:
If you are running the application at startup by adding a shortcut to the user's Startup folder then, just like any other shortcut, you can set the working directory there. If you haven't set the then the current directory will not be the application folder and thus a file identified only by name will not be assumed to be in that folder.
If you are starting the app that way (which you should have told us in the question) then either set the working directory of the shortcut (which is years-old Windows functionality and nothing to do with VB.NET) or do as I already suggested and specify the full path when referring to the file in code. Better yet, do both. As I already said, DO NOT rely on the current directory being any particular folder, with this being a perfect example of why, but it still doesn't hurt to set the current directory anyway if you have the opportunity.
It was a Windows task scheduler fault, that for some reason didn't executed the exe correctly at logon. I've solved the issue by using Task Till Down and everything works fine now.
Problem: Simple GUI with a button which triggers a batch file to run via cmd. Works for simple and fast scripts (ie mkdir foo), but more advanced scripts which need time to finish, it fails. The problem seems to surround cmd closing before the script can finish. I have included a WaitForExit() clause, but it seems to be ignored.
Private Sub RunButton_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles RunButton.Click
Dim foo as String = IO.Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Personal), "Foo\Scripts\foo.bat")
Dim p As New Process
Application.DoEvents()
p.StartInfo.FileName = foo
p.Start()
p.WaitForExit()
End Sub
Any ideas how to correct this issue? I see lots of posts about WScript and creating a shell object; do I really need to do it like that? This process seems to work, but it just closes out before the process finishes.
This question already has an answer here:
How to reference the current Windows user's video folder path in VB.net
(1 answer)
Closed 6 years ago.
I am trying to set the initial directory to the downloads folder but it doesn't work, Even though it's a perfectly valid path. Here is the code that I am using:
Private Sub btn_AddMod_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles btn_AddMod.Click 'This brings up the file dailoge
Dim Downloads As String = "\Downloads" 'A variables called \Downloads
Dim UserprofilePath = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.UserProfile) 'This finds the directory to the User profile environment variable
Dim Downloadspath As String = UserprofilePath.Insert(0, "") + Downloads 'This adds \downloads to userpath
OpenFileDialog1.InitialDirectory = Downloadspath 'This sets the Open File Dialog to go to the users downloads
txt_setmodname.Text = Downloadspath 'This is used for debugging, it sets a textbox to the path
OpenFileDialog1.ShowDialog() 'This opens the Dialog
End Sub
When I copy the output text, the path is perfectly valid but instead of taking me to the path, it takes me to MyDocuments
That's some wacky code you have there. I'm not sure why it doesn't work and I'm not too interested in finding out. I just tested this and it worked as you want:
Using ofd As New OpenFileDialog
ofd.InitialDirectory = IO.Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.UserProfile), "Downloads")
ofd.ShowDialog()
End Using
Obviously you can use an OpenFielDialog that you created in the designer instead of created in code if you want.
By the way, it should be noted that the user's Downloads folder is not necessarily in that location. Mine is on my D: drive, while my personal folder is on my C: drive. For people who keep C: only for system files, all their libraries and the like may be on a secondary drive. Unfortunately, there's no easy way to get the path for the Downloads folder like there is for Documents and some others. I'm guessing that the path is stored in the Registry or the like, but I'm not sure where.
I looked further into it and found out that there is a registry entry for the downloads path, so I used that instead and that seemed to have worked, My code is as follows.
Private Sub btn_AddMod_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles btn_AddMod.Click
Using ofd As New OpenFileDialog
Dim DownloadsPath = My.Computer.Registry.GetValue(
"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders\", "{374DE290-123F-4565-9164-39C4925E467B}", Nothing)
ofd.InitialDirectory = DownloadsPath
ofd.ShowDialog()
End Using
I'm not sure why the other method didn't work, it always took me to the MyDocuments folder for some reason.
I am using a 3rd party DLL from pdf-tools to parse PDF files inside my VB.NET application and write the extracted data to a SQL localDB database. I'm giving the user two options: to select a PDF file for parsing or to point to a folder and the application will loop through all PDF files inside it. Both options call the same procedure doPDFFile() as below.
The problem is: if I import a number of files individually by selecting a file every time, the program runs fine. However, If I select a folder that contains the same files, the memory used by the program will keep growing further and further. In Windows task manager, it can reach to 1 GB after importing around 30 files.
I used ANTS memory profiler from redgate, and it showed that one object called "GraphicsState" which is part of the pdf-tools object is growing too big when looping inside a folder. This does not happen if I select the same files one by one. Besides the memory problem, the application becomes very slow after parsing some files. My questions is: why is this happening? and how to prevent it? The user should be able to point the program to a folder with hundreds of PDF files, how can I achieve this?
Below is a snapshot of the code:
'When user selects one file
Private Sub OpenToolStripMenuItem_Click(...)
OpenFileDialog1.FileName.ToString
doPDFFile()
End Sub
'When user selects a folder
Private Sub LoopToolStripMenuItem_Click() Handles LoopToolStripMenuItem.Click
FolderBrowserDialog1.ShowDialog()
sPath = FolderBrowserDialog1.SelectedPath
For Each fileName As String In IO.Directory.GetFiles(...)
sPath = fileName
doPDFFile()
Next
End Sub
Inside the doPDFFile() procedure, I'm doing the following, I'm using the document object from pdf-tools and I'm passing it byRef to another procedure:
Public Sub doPDFFile()
Using document As New Pdftools.PdfExtract.Document
document.open(sPath)
findFirstPage(document) 'passing by reference
ParseFirstPage(document) 'passing by reference
'storing the parsed text in an array
'.......
do
'extracting the colors from the graphicsStateObject inside the document object:
Using objGraphicsState As Pdftools.PdfExtract.GraphicsState = content.GraphicsState
sColor = objGraphicsState.FillColorRGB
End Using
'save text and color in an array of objects
until endOfText
end using
end sub
I have a code that allows me to use an open file dialog to select a file. Once selected, the file path displays in Form3. What I'm trying to do from there is click Command_Button1 (Open) and physically open the file.
I can provide codes and JPEGs...but won't cloud this up until it is necessary :) I'm not using Common Dialog so the code is somewhat lengthy.
I looked online for a few hours yesterday and the closest I got was how to get it to open an Excel file...but this isn't Excel.
P.S. I'm new to VBA...so if this isn't as simple as a few lines of code and I'm missing the difficulty of it, please let me know. It seems like it should be a simple enough process...
Edit 1:
#mehow, Do you think it could be because the whole path name isn't displaying? I double clicked Open and nothing happened like you said
If you already know the path then..
Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()
dim myPath as String
myPath = "C:\files\file1.exe"
Dim shell As Object
Set shell = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
shell.Open myPath
End Sub