Display Names and Filenames - Win32 Programmer's Reference

Custom Search

Display Names and Filenames

Because item identifiers are binary data structures, each item in a shell folder also has a display name, which is a string that can be shown to the user. You can use member functions in the IShellFolder interface to retrieve an item's display name, to find an item with the specified display name, or to change an item's display name.

The IShellFolder::GetDisplayNameOf member function can be used to retrieve a display name. The actual string returned depends on the type of display name specified. Values identifying the different types of display names are defined by the SHGNO enumerated type and have the SHGDN prefix. The type of display name that an application requests might depend on whether an item is shown by itself or within its parent folder. (A shared directory might be labeled Public on 'bill' in the former case and simply Public in the latter case.)

A special type of display name is one that can be converted back to an item identifier by using the IShellFolder::ParseDisplayName member function. You might use this type of display name as a parameter to the ShellExecute function or as a command-line argument for an application. For items within the file system, the display name for parsing is the same as the file system path. You can also convert a PIDL to a file system path by using the SHGetPathFromIDList function.

The IShellFolder::SetNameOf member function can be used to change the display name of a file object or subfolder. Changing an item's display name also changes its item identifier, so the function returns a PIDL containing the new item identifier. For file objects or folders within the file system, changing the display name renames the file or directory.

Last news from Greatis Software

    Nostalgia .Net     .Net is powerful, but not all-powerful, so sometimes we need to use Win32 API for our .Net applications. It's simple enough with Platform Invoke if you have Win32 skill, but we do not always have time to dig the ancient documentation, declare the special types that are compatible with Win32, find the values of the Win32's constants and so on. Nostalgia .Net offers several simple-to-use classes, and components that will allow you to forget about the headache of Win32 and just use the power of Win32 in your application the same way as you use the native. Net classes. More »

Recommended software for developers

    Ultimate Pack     Component pack for Delphi and C++ Builder that contains runtime form designer, runtime object inspector, print suite and much more for the very special price. More »

    Form Designer .Net     Unique runtime form design solution that allows to edit any form in .Net WinForms application at runtime with full source codes for only 300 euro! More »

    Print Suite .Net     Print Suite .Net is a set of components for easy printing texts, images and grids from your WinForms applications. Full C# source codes are available More »

    Gradient Controls .Net     Gradient Controls .Net offers controls with gradient background feature. Labels, panels and so on... Full C# source codes are available More »

    Greatis iGrid     iGrid plots drawing grid right over your desktop, so you can use it everywhere, with any drawing application without any special plugins for different graphic editors. More »

All the contacts and projects

Dmitry Vasiliev (just.dmitry)

More Online Helps

Win32 Programmer's Reference
Win32 Multimedia Programmer's Reference
OLE Programmer's Reference
Microsoft Windows Pen API Programmer's Reference
Microsoft Windows Sockets 2 Reference
Microsoft Windows Telephony API (TAPI) Programmer's Reference
Unix Manual Pages

greatis just4fun network