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Path and filename to last opened file

Hi!

I need to get the path and filename to the last file a user opened. I know there is some ways to get it, like in Documents And Settings\<User>\Recent. And there is also stored information in the register in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RecentDocs, but only the name of the file is stored there, not the path.

The thing is, that I want my application to automaticly start and then load a file that has been opened outside the application. It's the same thing as all the office application does, like word or excel. When a user doubleclicks on a document, word starts and loads the document.

Please help :)

EverLearningCodeMonkey

Hi temj,

One approach you may want to try is to utilize the IShellLink Interface. The Recent Folder under documents and settings is populated with shortcuts, which store the paths back to the actual files. Apparently the IShellLink interface is one way to access the information in shortcuts. I don't know what language you use but here's some links I found to pages that deal with this. The GetPath and Resolve methods specifically would seem to be what you'd want.

NOTE: These articles may not focus on those calls specifically but they should show you how to access the interface and from there you should be able to use those methods. These articles focus on implementing the interface in .Net - What language are you using?

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms632714.aspx

http://www.icsharpcode.net/OpenSource/SD/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8969

http://www.icsharpcode.net/opensource/sd/Forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3169&SearchTerms=,IshellLink

http://www.msjogren.net/dotnet/eng/samples/dotnet_shelllink.asp

http://www.vbaccelerator.com/home/NET/Code/Libraries/Shell_Projects/Creating_and_Modifying_Shortcuts/article.asp

temj

ASKER

Very interessting, too bad that I'm using java, because this would actually solve my problem.

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EverLearningCodeMonkey

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temj

ASKER

I wasn't able to compile the java version of the IShellLink, cause of missing links. But I'm looking into that other document.

leroopsin

I think you can use JNI which you help you call a C++/COM/DCOM inside Java. Please refer to the link "http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/jni/spec/jniTOC.html" how to know to develop a JNI function.

EverLearningCodeMonkey

I took a closer look at the ShellLink.java file - the package and a couple of the imports refer to IzPack which is also written by the same person it's available at the following link.

Perhaps that will rectify the problem.

http://www.izforge.com/izpack/downloads

temj

ASKER

Problem solved :)

I had to visit www.izforge.com/downloads, and downloaded the sourcefiles for the izpack project, and imported it into my project, to be able to compile the ShellLink.java file and use it. It works great :)

Thank you all for helping me out with this one.