VB - Interact with the Recent Documents List

[John McKernan]

Summary:
Procedure allows your VB app to interact with the Windows Recent Documents List. You can clear the Recent Documents list and/or add a file to the list.

Arguments:
ClearList - Boolean: True to Clear the list, otherwise False
FilePath - Optional. Enter path of file you wish to add to the list

'declare api procedures
    Public Declare Sub SHAddToRecentDocs Lib "shell32.dll" _
        (ByVal uFlags As Long, _
        ByVal pv As String)
 
'declare constants
    Public Const SHARD_PATHA = &H2&
 
 
Public Sub RecentDocs(ClearList as Boolean, Optional FilePath as Variant)
    'clear docs list?
    If ClearList then SHAddToRecentDocs 0, CLng(0)
 
    'add file to docs list?
    If Not IsMissing(FilePath) Then SHAddToRecentDocs SHARD_PATH, FilePath
End Sub

Usage Example:

'To clear Recent Documents List:
RecentDocs True
 
'To clear list then add a file to it:
RecentDocs True, "c:\AddToRecentDocsList.txt"
 
'To append file to the list:
RecentDocs False, "c:\AddToRecentDocsList.txt"

Notes:
As written, this code is intended to be placed in a module, and then called as needed. In order to place this code in a form, you will have to change the API and Constant declarations to 'Private'