VB App won't populate ListBox with files found with GetFiles

Private Sub findPSTButton_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles findPSTButton.Click
        BackupperProgress.Value = 0
        MasterTimer.Start()
        Try
            For Each foundPST As String In My.Computer.FileSystem.GetFiles(
                Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.UserProfile), Microsoft.VisualBasic.FileIO.SearchOption.SearchAllSubDirectories, "*.pst")
                PSTList.Items.Add(foundPST)
            Next
        Catch ex As Exception

        End Try
        BackupperProgress.Value = 99
    End Sub

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According to several sources, this should do the following:

a) Start the progress bar
b) Search the current logged in User Profile folder for PST files.
c) Ignore Junction Points (i.e. My Pictures under Documents, etc) and all exceptions
d) Add all of the PST's found to the ListBox

Unfortunately, when the button is clicked nothing appears in the list box. Can anyone tell me what I've done wrong here?

EDIT: By adding a MsgBox(ex.Message) I found out that I'm still getting access denied errors. I've tried putting a Catch line after the For Each one but it blocks the foundPST variable from being used elsewhere in the code. It also says that a Next line needs to be before the Catch. But if I do that I'm back to square one.

Private Sub findPSTButton_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles findPSTButton.Click Dim dirs As Object dirs = My.Computer.FileSystem.GetDirectories(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.UserProfile)) For Each dir As String In dirs Try For Each foundPST As String In My.Computer.FileSystem.GetFiles(dir, FileIO.SearchOption.SearchAllSubDirectories, "*.pst") PSTList.Items.Add(foundPST) Next foundPST Catch ex As Exception End Try Next dir End Sub

Imports System.IO Imports System.Environment Public Class Form1 Private Sub findPSTButton_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles findPSTButton.Click Dim dirstack As New Stack(Of String) Dim res As New List(Of String) dirstack.Push(GetFolderPath(SpecialFolder.UserProfile)) Do While (dirstack.Count > 0) Dim dir As String = dirstack.Pop Try res.AddRange(Directory.GetFiles(dir, "*.pst")) For Each subdir As String In Directory.GetDirectories(dir) dirstack.Push(subdir) Next subdir Catch ex As UnauthorizedAccessException End Try Loop For Each fil As String In res PSTList.Items.Add(fil) Next fil MsgBox(PSTList.Items.Count & " PST files found.") End Sub End Class

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LVL 65

Fernando SotoRetiredCommented: 2017-11-27

Hi Jason;

Try changing this line of code

PSTList.Items.Add(foundPST)

To this

 PSTList.Items.AddRange(foundPST.ToArray())

LVL 39

NorieAnalyst Assistant Commented: 2017-11-27

Jason

I think you might need to separate things out a bit.

For example, first find all the subdirectories you want to search and then try and search them individually for PST files.

Doing it that way means you'll be able to deal with folders where there are problems with access.

Something like this, which I'm sure can be written more elegantly.

LVL 1

Jason ParadisIT Operations SpecialistAuthor Commented: 2017-11-27

Norie,

Thank you! That worked.

However, it only shows one PST file in the ListBox when I know for a fact there are more in the User Profile folder that's being searched.

Is there a reason only one line appears? It's a pretty big box.

It found the one located in %userprofile%\Downloads\ but not the one located in %userprofile%\My Documents\ unless there is a limitation on how many rows can be in a ListBox.

Fernando,

I tried your suggestion, however it produced an error:

Overload resolution failed because no accessible AddRange can be called with these arguments.

Jason

Is the missing PST file definitely in the My Documents (or Documents) folder and not a subfolder of that document?

As it is the code I posted is only going to search the first level of subfolders of the user profile folder.

Do you want to search recursively? i.e. search the main folder, then it's subfolders, then the subfolders of the subfolders and so on.

Norie,

Yes, I wish to search all subdirectories as well. I thought SearchAllSubDirectories did just that.

jason

Try this, it worked for me but I'm sure there's a more elegant/better solution.

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Norie,

That is absolutely fantastic! Thank you very much, works like a charm!

And on top of that, I learned a bunch of new stuff about programming in VB. Win win!

VB App won't populate ListBox with files found with GetFiles

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