Handling folder/shortcut selection

I have an app that requires the user to select a folder, the app runs up/down that folder tree to read/write various files. All that works fine. To select the folder, I support three methods, a FolderBrowserDialog, drag/drop and also a text mechanism where the path can be typed/pasted into a textbox.

The issue I have is handling folder shortcuts. Pasting the path is fine and drag/drop is fine because I can sort out what the incoming object is in code. But for folder/shortcut selection by dialog, I've ended up with two buttons, one being the FolderBrowserDialog for folders and the second an OpenFileDialog for shortcuts (set to display only .lnk files).

From a users perspective, I think this is quite poor, it also 'looks' plain odd. It forces the user to check what type of folder object they want to use before they can select it.

How can I permit folder OR shortcut selection with the same dialog? It seems that my only option is to build my own dialog, which could actually be quite involved, since I would need to replicate the File/Folder dialogs.

Any ideas welcome.

you'd have to create your own custom dialog.

i've attached a program that might get you started.

That's very helpful of you, I'll take a look.