How can I open Windows Explorer to a certain directory from within a WPF app?

In a WPF application, when a user clicks on a button I want to open the Windows explorer to a certain directory, how do I do that?

I would expect something like this:

Windows.OpenExplorer("c:\test");

Why not `Process.Start(@"c:\test");`?

You can use `System.Diagnostics.Process.Start`.

Or use the WinApi directly with something like the following, which will launch explorer.exe. You can use the fourth parameter to ShellExecute to give it a starting directory.


public partial class Window1 : Window
{
public Window1()
{
ShellExecute(IntPtr.Zero, "open", "explorer.exe", "", "", ShowCommands.SW_NORMAL);
InitializeComponent();
}

public enum ShowCommands : int
{
SW_HIDE = 0,
SW_SHOWNORMAL = 1,
SW_NORMAL = 1,
SW_SHOWMINIMIZED = 2,
SW_SHOWMAXIMIZED = 3,
SW_MAXIMIZE = 3,
SW_SHOWNOACTIVATE = 4,
SW_SHOW = 5,
SW_MINIMIZE = 6,
SW_SHOWMINNOACTIVE = 7,
SW_SHOWNA = 8,
SW_RESTORE = 9,
SW_SHOWDEFAULT = 10,
SW_FORCEMINIMIZE = 11,
SW_MAX = 11
}

[DllImport("shell32.dll")]
static extern IntPtr ShellExecute(
IntPtr hwnd,
string lpOperation,
string lpFile,
string lpParameters,
string lpDirectory,
ShowCommands nShowCmd);
}

The declarations come from the [pinvoke.net website][1].


[1]:

[To see links please register here]

Process.Start("explorer.exe" , @"C:\Users");

I had to use this, the other way of just specifying the tgt dir would shut the explorer window when my application terminated.

This should work:

Process.Start(@"<directory goes here>")
Or if you'd like a method to run programs/open files and/or folders:
```cs
private void StartProcess(string path)
{
ProcessStartInfo StartInformation = new ProcessStartInfo();

StartInformation.FileName = path;

Process process = Process.Start(StartInformation);

process.EnableRaisingEvents = true;
}
```
And then call the method and in the parenthesis put either the directory of the file and/or folder there or the name of the application. Hope this helped!

Here's what worked for me:

Basically use the command line to call "start C:/path"
And exit the terminal afterward, so "start c:/path && exit"


```
WindowsExplorerOpen(@"C:/path");

public static void WindowsExplorerOpen(string path)
{
CommandLine(path, $"start {path}");
}

private static void CommandLine(string workingDirectory, string Command)
{
ProcessStartInfo ProcessInfo;
Process Process;

ProcessInfo = new ProcessStartInfo("cmd.exe", "/K " + Command + " && exit");
ProcessInfo.WorkingDirectory = workingDirectory;
ProcessInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
ProcessInfo.UseShellExecute = true;
ProcessInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;

Process = Process.Start(ProcessInfo);
Process.WaitForExit();
}
```

Neither of these worked for me:

```
Process.Start(@"c:\test");
Process.Start("explorer.exe" , @"C:\Users");
```