I need someone who knows ALOT about windows hooks to answer this :

Hello i need to make a direcorty with all the files/subdirs hiden from windows explorer or any other thing [ a way to make windows think there is no such diretory there] i saw a app that does just that called MAGIC FOLDERS i think but i need to know how can i do a thing like this as i see it a knowlage at windows hooks are needed here so if you can please help , Tnx

[DiGiTaIErRoR]

Go into DOS type
C:\>mkdir test
type:
c:\>ren test _test where the _ = alt 255(null) windows says what?! null!!! I can't read this and when you try to open it it says it can't find it!

Very nice idea but it just renames it to _test

..?

[DiGiTaIErRoR]

the null only works in dos nothing in windows can access it i don't know about making it totally invisible (decompile IE5) that would tell you it stores lots of hidden files in tempor~1 you could try making the file archive, hidden, and system?

Well thats not what i was looking for but Tnx for the info anyHow

[Björn]

Well, forget VB ( :-( ) and write a Shell-Extension in C++.

I've read a book by Dino Esposito. Believe me, Shell-Extension lets you command anything in Windows-Explorer !

Well Isnt there a way of doing this out of VB ....
Can you send me something that does that in c if you have it ?

[joelryan]

What are you trying to do? There may be a work-around to this. For example, you could hide the files/directory in a different place, then have your application move it to the appropriate place for use. You could also get a compression control and ZIP it up into a data file in the application directory, then create the directory and unzip it at the appropriate time. There may be other creative ways to do what your looking for.

Dont Be foolish dude , i need this to make a directory hidden , not by hidden/read only i mean hidden like in magic folders ...
I have no Fuc*ing idea how the hell did thay do that [ All i know is that it wasnt by the reg ]

[Yonatan]

Magic Folders, iProtect and programs like that hide directories using a TSR, which hooks the system up using SetCocaineEx, no not really, and somehow checks whether a read/write operation is about to be executed. It checks if the operation is aimed at a directory which the user wants hidden, and if so, it cancels the operation with the error code ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND. How it does this is a secret which Bill Gates knows but does not feel like sharing with us. The people who made those programs used Call BribeMicrosoftEx(HIDE_DIRECTORY), no not really, to find out how to do it.

------------------
Yonatan
Teenage Programmer
E-Mail: RZvika@netvision.net.il
ICQ: 19552879 (http://www.icq.com/19552879)

[Evan]

Thats All Interesting..
How would you make a shell extention to hide a folder or files.. I want to do that :)

Evan

[Yonatan]

Hey Björn, how do you do it in C/C++? I'll translate it to VB. There's nothing, nothing you can do in C++ that you can't do in VB! Except: Function overloading, protected class members, operator overloading (REALLY needed in VB, Microsoft!), extended class inheritance (the Implements keyword doesn't always work the best) and INTERFACES (Get a clue, Microsoft).

------------------
Yonatan
Teenage Programmer
E-Mail: RZvika@netvision.net.il
ICQ: 19552879 (http://www.icq.com/19552879)

[Serge]

Unfortunately, you can't.


Regards,

------------------

Serge

Software Developer
Serge_Dymkov@vertexinc.com
Access8484@aol.com
ICQ#: 51055819 (http://www.icq.com/51055819)

[Björn]

Hi ! (Yonatan)

(Didn't watch the thread for some days...)

What you cannot do with Visual Basic, is creating REAL Dlls. ActiveX-Dlls are fine, but these are not REAL Dlls.
These Dlls are necessary for Shell-Extensions. Don't know if you can use ATL with VB, do you ?

Regards,

Björn

[Björn]

If I'm wrong please correct me,

but without the use of REAL Dlls and without ATL I guess that writing a shell-extension (Property Sheet or Namespace-Ext) is impossible.

[Farz]

I'm not sure about namespace extensions but almost every other kind of shell extension is possible using VB. Property Page extensions are a little tricky because you need a way to call an AddPage function pointer returned to your shell and I saw someone just create a very simple DLL and declared it in VB to do this. The code in the DLL (regular DLL) was something like this;

typedef BOOL (CALLBACK FAR * LPFNADDPROPSHEETPAGE)(LONG, LONG);

int WINAPI __export AddPage(LPFNADDPROPSHEETPAGE lpfnAddPage, LONG hPage, LONG lParam) {

return lpfnAddPage(hPage, lParam);

}

Also Microsoft has a context menu shell extension sample in VB. You should be able to find it at MSDN.

To be honest shell extentions are the only thing I can think of that are easier in C++ than VB. The code is fairly boilerplate so the actual code you have to add in C++ is just the stuff you want to do. Just look at the MS sample and you'll see what I mean about being harder in VB.

If I can dig up any samples I'll post them but I don't know if I have backups of that stuff from my last hard drive crash. :(

Umm - DAMN !!!!!!
i have no Clue what the hell you talking about :)
Know about books on the subject ?

[OB1]

I have been trying to make something like MFD too. In order to do something like MFD you have to do some low-level assembler and make a com file. good luck