Getting Icons from the Desktop

Greetings,

Is there a way to get the Icons and their positions on the desktop without forcibly reading through the memory space of Explorer.exe? I am looking for a cleaner solution then the one I found on the net. Here is a snippet of how I find the Program Manager:

Code:

---


HWND WindowsSystem::FindListView()
{
        HWND progmanHwnd = 0;
        HWND desktopViewHwnd = NULL;
        HWND listViewHwnd = NULL;

        // First find the main window of program that houses the desktop.
        progmanHwnd = FindWindow(NULL, "Program Manager");

        if (progmanHwnd)
        {
                // Then get the desktop window
                desktopViewHwnd = FindWindowEx(progmanHwnd, NULL, "SHELLDLL_DefView", NULL);
               
                if (desktopViewHwnd)
                {
                        // Finally get the handle to the listview on the desktop.
                        listViewHwnd = FindWindowEx(desktopViewHwnd, NULL, "SysListView32", NULL);
                }
        }

        return listViewHwnd;
}

---

Once there I just read the memory:

Code:

---

// First we get the icon position.
result = SendMessage(listViewHwnd, LVM_GETITEMPOSITION, i, (LPARAM) iconPos);

if (result)
{
        // Get the data from the shared memory
        ReadProcessMemory(explorer, iconPos, &iconPoint, sizeof(POINT), NULL);
                               
        // Set stuff up to retrieve the label of the icon.
        [....my code....]
                               
        // Write the list source
        WriteProcessMemory(explorer, iconLabel, &iconListLabel, sizeof(LVITEM), NULL);

        // Request the label.
        result = SendMessage(listViewHwnd, LVM_GETITEMTEXT, i, (LPARAM) iconLabel);

        if (SUCCEEDED(result))
        {
                ReadProcessMemory(explorer, iconNameBuffer, &buffer, sizeof(buffer), NULL);

                // Save the Icon name and Position
                [....my code....]
        }
}

---

The problem is that the names of the icons are read as they are seen on the desktop and therefore don't have a Path, and sometimes (in the case of hidden LNK files) do not have an extension. Therefore it is hard to cross reference them with a directory listing. Is there a better way of getting these Icons, possibly polling the registry?? or reading some setting file??

Any help is appreciated,
Thanks in advance.

Could you use the code from here? http://faq.cprogramming.com/cgi-bin/...&id=1044780608

It would necessitate knowing the location of the user's desktop.

A directory listing is only part of what I require. The icons on the desktop only contain filenames (without absolute paths/extensions). I need both, the absolute path of the icon and its position on the desktop.

Thanks for the link, it will prove useful later on :D

You mean, you need "C:\Windows\notepad.exe" as well as "notepad.exe"?

It's quite simple to search for the last '\\' and take the string from there on. In C without error checking:

Code:

---

const char *path = "C:\\Windows\\notepad.exe";
const char *filename = strrchr(path, '\\') + 1;

---

[edit] Or do you mean the actual [quasi-]physical positioning of the icon on the desktop; for example, at (100,200)? If so, why would you need that? . . . [/edit]

Yes I need the Physical Icon position on the desktop and the absolute path that the icon represents. For example:

Code:

---

Icon name on the desktop: songs.
Absolute Path: C:\Documents and Settings\Mastadex\Desktop\songs.txt
Position: {20, 20}

---

Currently I don't know how to get the Absolute Path.

The icon positions are probably stored in the registry, like you said. I don't know how you'd get them. But why would you need this information? The only reason I can think of is if you wanted to simulate a click on the icon, or make sure you don't place another icon on top of an old one, or simulate the desktop itself. Or something like that.

As for the absolute paths, you could probably determine them by reading in the .LNK and .PIF files yourself. I don't know what format they're in, but I'm sure it's consistent.

Or you could just use some Windows-specific function(s); but I'm not a Windows programmer and so I can't help you there.

BTW, you should probably be using the word "shortcut" instead of the word "icon". An icon is a little image. A shortcut is a reference to another file somewhere else on the filesystem.

Icons are the right term because Not all Icons are shortcuts. For example, The recycle bin/my computer/network neighborhood icons are technically referred to as "Virtual folders" and do not have any corresponding shortcut on the hard disk. Also, you can have actual files on your desktop that are not shortcuts. I need this information in order to duplicate the desktop's icon orientation within my program; in essence, simulate a desktop environment. I don't want to simulate clicks on these icons, I just need the information that these Icons represent.

Is there a way to read the desktop as a folder where by you would get an array of PIDLs? Can Icon positions be read out of the Shell using such a method? Does the shell store Icon positions within a folder (ie. Large Icon view) in the same way a Desktop does?