Retrieve Recent Documents Paths !!!!!

Hi all,

I want to retrieve the list of recent documents that is shown on the Start Menu and store the Documents full paths in an array.

I understand that these recent documents are stored in the following Registry address :
HKEY_LOCAL_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RecentDocs

Any pointers ? :wave:

Any help much appreciated.

I am afraid there is any pointers to this. If at all required you can store the registry entries in an array

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BLUE_SEA

Hi all,

I want to retrieve the list of recent documents that is shown on the Start Menu and store the Documents full paths in an array.

I understand that these recent documents are stored in the following Registry address :
HKEY_LOCAL_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RecentDocs

Any pointers ? :wave:

Any help much appreciated.

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What part of this are you having trouble with?

Open the Registry using RegOpenKey.
RegOpenKey(HKEY_CURRENT_USER, "Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RecentDocs", lngKeyHandle)

Now, time to enumerate and get all the values:
Use RegEnumValue
Pass the lngKeyHandle to RegEnumValue
Loop until the return value of RegEnumValue is 0.

If you want to get a list of what is in your recent documents folder, then this should work without having to go into the registry. I'm displaying all of the Recent Documents in a ListBox, but you can do whatever you want.

VB Code:

Option Explicit
 
Private Const CSIDL_RECENT = 8
Private Const MAX_PATH As Integer = 260
 
Private Type HITEMID
    cb As Long
    abID As Byte
End Type
 
Private Type ITEMIDLIST
    mkid As HITEMID
End Type
 
Private Declare Function SHGetSpecialFolderLocation Lib "Shell32.dll" _
(ByVal hwndOwner As Long, ByVal nFolder As Long, pidl As ITEMIDLIST) As Long
 
Private Declare Function SHGetPathFromIDList Lib "Shell32.dll" Alias "SHGetPathFromIDListA" _
(ByVal pidl As Long, ByVal pszPath As String) As Long
 
Private Function fGetSpecialFolder(plngCSIDL As Long) As String
Dim sPath As String
Dim IDL As ITEMIDLIST
 
fGetSpecialFolder = vbNullString
If SHGetSpecialFolderLocation(Form1.hwnd, plngCSIDL, IDL) = 0 Then
  
    sPath = Space$(MAX_PATH)
    If SHGetPathFromIDList(ByVal IDL.mkid.cb, ByVal sPath) Then
        fGetSpecialFolder = Left$(sPath, InStr(sPath, vbNullChar) - 1) & "\"
    End If
End If
End Function
 
Private Sub Command1_Click()
Dim strPath As String
Dim strLoadFiles As String
strPath = fGetSpecialFolder(CSIDL_RECENT)
List1.Clear
strLoadFiles = Dir(strPath & "*.*")
Do While strLoadFiles > vbNullString
   List1.AddItem strLoadFiles
   strLoadFiles = Dir
Loop
End Sub

@Hack, you could use SHGetSpecialFolderPath directly instead of using both SHGetSpecialFolderLocation and SHGetPathFromIDList.

Code:

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Private Declare Function SHGetSpecialFolderPath _
 Lib "shell32.dll" Alias "SHGetSpecialFolderPathA" ( _
    ByVal hwnd As Long, _
    ByVal pszPath As String, _
    ByVal csidl As Long, _
    ByVal fCreate As Long _
) As Long

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You would call that function like this:

Code:

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Dim sPath As String
sPath = String$(MAX_PATH, vbNullChar)
Call SHGetSpecialFolderPath(0&, sPath, CSIDL_RECENT, False)
sPath = Left$(sPath, InStr(sPath, vbNullChar) - 1)

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