SHBrowseForFolder with BIF_BROWSEFORCOMPUTER and SHGetPathFromIDList Not Working

Question

I am trying to get SHBrowseForFolder with BIF_BROWSEFORCOMPUTER to work, in order to allow a user to select a computer on the network.

I can get the dialog to display and allow selection of a network computer, the OK button is enabled, but when I click OK, even though the function returns a PIDL that is not NULL, the call to SHGetPathFromIDList fails and the path to the remote computer is therefore not available.

Am I calling the right function to get the remote computer name?

Code:

UINT __stdcall BrowseForFolder()
{
    CoInitializeEx(NULL, COINIT_APARTMENTTHREADED);

    // Setup browse structure.
    BROWSEINFO bi = { 0 };
    bi.lpszTitle = TEXT("Pick a Directory");
    bi.hwndOwner = GetForegroundWindow();
    bi.ulFlags = BIF_USENEWUI | BIF_BROWSEFORCOMPUTER;

    // Call 
    LPITEMIDLIST pidl = SHBrowseForFolder(&bi);

    // Get path.
    if (pidl)
    {
        // get the name of the folder
        TCHAR path[MAX_PATH];
        if (SHGetPathFromIDList(pidl, path))    // This function fails and path is NULL.
        {
            MessageBox(GetForegroundWindow(), path, TEXT("Path"), MB_ICONINFORMATION);
        }

        // free memory used
        CoTaskMemFree(pidl);
    }

    CoUninitialize();

    return ERROR_SUCCESS;
}

Remy Lebeau · Answer 1 · 2020-01-21T19:19:33.280

SHGetPathFromIDList() only works for filesystem paths. A network computer is not part of the filesystem, so you can't use SHGetPathFromIDList() for this task.

If you need the name of the selected computer, you can either:

use SHGetDesktopFolder() to get the IShellFolder interface at the top of the Shell namespace, and then pass the returned PIDL to its GetDisplayNameOf() method.
pass the returned PIDL to SHGetNameFromIDList().
simply point the BROWSEINFO::pszDisplayName field to a buffer for the dialog to fill in on exit, eg:

UINT __stdcall BrowseForFolder()
{
    TCHAR szComputerName[MAX_COMPUTERNAME_LENGTH] = {};

    CoInitializeEx(NULL, COINIT_APARTMENTTHREADED);

    // Setup browse structure.
    BROWSEINFO bi = { 0 };
    bi.lpszTitle = TEXT("Pick a Computer");
    bi.hwndOwner = GetForegroundWindow();
    bi.pszDisplayName = szComputerName;
    bi.ulFlags = BIF_USENEWUI | BIF_BROWSEFORCOMPUTER;

    // Call 
    LPITEMIDLIST pidl = SHBrowseForFolder(&bi);

    // Get path.
    if (pidl)
    {
        MessageBox(GetForegroundWindow(), szComputerName, TEXT("Computer Name"), MB_ICONINFORMATION);

        // free memory used
        CoTaskMemFree(pidl);
    }

    CoUninitialize();

    return ERROR_SUCCESS;
}

As a newbie, I do realize I shouldn't say thanks, but that has solved my problem, thanks Remy! — VDeuce, Jan 21 '20 at 19:56
@VDeuce see [What should I do when someone answers my question?](https://stackoverflow.com/help/someone-answers) — Remy Lebeau, Jan 21 '20 at 23:30

SHBrowseForFolder with BIF_BROWSEFORCOMPUTER and SHGetPathFromIDList Not Working

1 Answers1