Get current explorer window path

[AlexV]

I've been trying to find a good script to cleanly and reliably get the current path of an explorer window without tricks like reading it from the address bar or knowing the user profile name and so on. Having finally found the right interfaces and properties, I thought I'd share it for others:

Code: Select all

GetActiveExplorerPath()
{
	explorerHwnd := WinActive("ahk_class CabinetWClass")
	if (explorerHwnd)
	{
		for window in ComObjCreate("Shell.Application").Windows
		{
			if (window.hwnd==explorerHwnd)
			{
				return window.Document.Folder.Self.Path
			}
		}
	}
}

If the string it returns starts with :: then it's a special folder of some sort, and doesn't really have a path as such.

[boiler]

Thanks for sharing this.

[godofOOF]

how do you use this

[boiler]

Activate the file explorer window (via your script or manually), then call the function. If you are activating it manually, then you’ll need some way to trigger the function, like make it part of a hotkey subroutine. One way to call the function is to assign the returned value of the function to a variable:

Code: Select all

Path := GetActiveExplorerPath()

[seohyeonhyeon]

Thanks so much for posting! This is much better than what I had navigating up to the address bar.

[MancioDellaVega]

This is another great code that i found here in the forum, it give you the path of the selected file

Code: Select all

q:: ; Get the Path to the Selected File in Explorer. 
      hwnd := WinExist("A")
      for Window in ComObjCreate("Shell.Application").Windows  
          if (window.hwnd==hwnd) {
              Selection := Window.Document.SelectedItems
              for Items in Selection
                  Path_to_Selection := Items.path
          }

      MsgBox % Path_to_Selection

return

[flacito]

This is another great code that i found here in the forum, it give you the path of the selected file

Code: Select all

q:: ; Get the Path to the Selected File in Explorer. 
      hwnd := WinExist("A")
      for Window in ComObjCreate("Shell.Application").Windows  
          if (window.hwnd==hwnd) {
              Selection := Window.Document.SelectedItems
              for Items in Selection
                  Path_to_Selection := Items.path
          }

      MsgBox % Path_to_Selection

return

Would someone be so kind to make it such that the path to selection is copied to clipboard?

[rommmcek]

Replace MsgBox % Path_to_Selection with Clipboard:= Path_to_Selection

[flacito]

Replace MsgBox % Path_to_Selection with Clipboard:= Path_to_Selection

Perfect! Thanks

[svArtist]

Oh this is great!

Although I ran into a Catastrophic Error, specifically: hwnd.
Apparently, that can fail to enumerate, and not even gracefully.
Here's my version that catches errors and also allows you to pass an already determined HWND.

• If none is passed, it takes the active Explorer window.
  • If the active window isn't an Explorer Window, it takes the first one it can find.

if a specific HWND was passed but doesn't point to an Explorer window, it returns false (instead of looking for the best match; so you don't end up with an unexpected result)

Code: Select all

GetExplorerPath(hwnd=0){
	if(hwnd==0){
		explorerHwnd := WinActive("ahk_class CabinetWClass")
		if(explorerHwnd==0)
			explorerHwnd := WinExist("ahk_class CabinetWClass")
	}
	else
		explorerHwnd := WinExist("ahk_class CabinetWClass ahk_id " . hwnd)
	
	if (explorerHwnd){
		for window in ComObjCreate("Shell.Application").Windows{
			try{
				if (window && window.hwnd && window.hwnd==explorerHwnd)
					return window.Document.Folder.Self.Path
			}
		}
	}
	return false
}

[azowux]

Oh this is great!

Although I ran into a Catastrophic Error, specifically: hwnd.
Apparently, that can fail to enumerate, and not even gracefully.
Here's my version that catches errors and also allows you to pass an already determined HWND.

• If none is passed, it takes the active Explorer window.
  • If the active window isn't an Explorer Window, it takes the first one it can find.

if a specific HWND was passed but doesn't point to an Explorer window, it returns false (instead of looking for the best match; so you don't end up with an unexpected result)

Code: Select all

GetExplorerPath(hwnd=0){
	if(hwnd==0){
		explorerHwnd := WinActive("ahk_class CabinetWClass")
		if(explorerHwnd==0)
			explorerHwnd := WinExist("ahk_class CabinetWClass")
	}
	else
		explorerHwnd := WinExist("ahk_class CabinetWClass ahk_id " . hwnd)
	
	if (explorerHwnd){
		for window in ComObjCreate("Shell.Application").Windows{
			try{
				if (window && window.hwnd && window.hwnd==explorerHwnd)
					return window.Document.Folder.Self.Path
			}
		}
	}
	return false
}

Been automating workflows on AHK for 4 years already. Gotta state even though currently I'm changing jobs and nobody understands my code's language (I just briefly say there's a huge library built on WinAPI), the community is alive as it has never been. Thanks a lot guys for your shares!

[Jamjize]

@AlexV
Thank you very much!!! <3 <3 <3

[flacito]

Oh this is great!

Although I ran into a Catastrophic Error, specifically: hwnd.
Apparently, that can fail to enumerate, and not even gracefully.
Here's my version that catches errors and also allows you to pass an already determined HWND.

• If none is passed, it takes the active Explorer window.
  • If the active window isn't an Explorer Window, it takes the first one it can find.

if a specific HWND was passed but doesn't point to an Explorer window, it returns false (instead of looking for the best match; so you don't end up with an unexpected result)

Code: Select all

GetExplorerPath(hwnd=0){
	if(hwnd==0){
		explorerHwnd := WinActive("ahk_class CabinetWClass")
		if(explorerHwnd==0)
			explorerHwnd := WinExist("ahk_class CabinetWClass")
	}
	else
		explorerHwnd := WinExist("ahk_class CabinetWClass ahk_id " . hwnd)
	
	if (explorerHwnd){
		for window in ComObjCreate("Shell.Application").Windows{
			try{
				if (window && window.hwnd && window.hwnd==explorerHwnd)
					return window.Document.Folder.Self.Path
			}
		}
	}
	return false
}

Been automating workflows on AHK for 4 years already. Gotta state even though currently I'm changing jobs and nobody understands my code's language (I just briefly say there's a huge library built on WinAPI), the community is alive as it has never been. Thanks a lot guys for your shares!

after using it for so long, i now get a catastrophic error. But I dont know how to incorporate your fix in the code.
How does that go about?

[svArtist]

[...]
after using it for so long, i now get a catastrophic error. But I dont know how to incorporate your fix in the code.
How does that go about?

Sorry, I don't seem to get email notifications for replies in this forum o_o

My adaptation should be a drop-in replacement.
paste the function in your script and use it simply like path := GetExplorerPath() when you want to get the "current" explorer window's path (active window if it's an Explorer window, otherwise the first matching window), or path := GetExplorerPath(hwnd) when you already have a specific window of which you want to get the path by passing its hwnd to the function

[Avtem]

@AlexV
You are a legend! Thank you

[Onurtag]

Thanks for the function and the update.

The script wasn't working correctly for the Windows 11 Version 10.0.22621+ tabbed explorer so I added an extra window title check.
Also now if you run GetExplorerPath(0, false) it will only match the active window.

**Currently it doesn't work correctly if you have 2 opened tabs with the same title (such as C:\Folder1 and D:\Folder1.)

Code: Select all

GetExplorerPath(hwnd = 0, findWindow = true) {
	if (hwnd == 0) {
		explorerHwnd := WinActive("ahk_class CabinetWClass")
		if (findWindow && explorerHwnd == 0) {
			explorerHwnd := WinExist("ahk_class CabinetWClass")
		}
	} else {
		explorerHwnd := WinExist("ahk_class CabinetWClass ahk_id " . hwnd)
	}
	WinGetTitle, myTitle, ahk_id %explorerHwnd%
	if (explorerHwnd) {
		for window in ComObjCreate("Shell.Application").Windows {
			try {
				if (window && window.hwnd && window.hwnd == explorerHwnd && window.LocationName && window.LocationName == myTitle) {
					return window.Document.Folder.Self.Path
				}
			}
		}
	}
	return false
}

On my ExploreEverything script I have decided to mainly use these three lines below and only use GetExplorerPath() for special folders like Pictures/Documents/Movies etc.

Code: Select all

ControlGet, crumbHWND, Hwnd,, Breadcrumb Parent1, A
ControlGetText, RunPath, ToolbarWindow321, ahk_id %crumbHWND%
RunPath := StrSplit(RunPath, ": ")[2]

[ntepa]

This function can get the path in Windows 11 tabbed explorer:

Code: Select all

GetActiveExplorerPath() {
    hwnd := WinActive("ahk_class CabinetWClass")
    activeTab := 0
    try ControlGet, activeTab, Hwnd,, % "ShellTabWindowClass1", % "ahk_id" hwnd
    for w in ComObjCreate("Shell.Application").Windows {
        if (w.hwnd != hwnd)
            continue
        if activeTab {
            static IID_IShellBrowser := "{000214E2-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}"
            shellBrowser := ComObjQuery(w, IID_IShellBrowser, IID_IShellBrowser)
            DllCall(NumGet(numGet(shellBrowser+0)+3*A_PtrSize), "Ptr", shellBrowser, "UInt*", thisTab)
            if (thisTab != activeTab)
                continue
            ObjRelease(shellBrowser)
        }
        return w.Document.Folder.Self.Path
    }
}

[Onurtag]

This function can get the path in Windows 11 tabbed explorer:

Looks great! Thank you.