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FolderBrowserDialog Class

Prompts the user to select a folder. This class cannot be inherited.

Namespace:  System.Windows.Forms
Assembly:  System.Windows.Forms (in System.Windows.Forms.dll)

'Declaration
Public NotInheritable Class FolderBrowserDialog _
	Inherits CommonDialog
'Usage
Dim instance As FolderBrowserDialog

This class provides a way to prompt the user to browse, create, and eventually select a folder. Use this class when you only want to allow the user to select folders, not files. Browsing of the folders is done through a tree control. Only folders from the file system can be selected; virtual folders cannot.

Typically, after creating a new FolderBrowserDialog, you set the RootFolder to the location from which to start browsing. Optionally, you can set the SelectedPath to an absolute path of a subfolder of RootFolder that will initially be selected. You can also optionally set the Description property to provide additional instructions to the user. Finally, call the ShowDialog method to display the dialog box to the user. When the dialog box is closed and the dialog box result from ShowDialog is DialogResult.OK, the SelectedPath will be a string containing the path to the selected folder.

You can use the ShowNewFolderButton property to control if the user is able to create new folders with the New Folder button.

FolderBrowserDialog is a modal dialog box; therefore, when shown, it blocks the rest of the application until the user has chosen a folder. When a dialog box is displayed modally, no input (keyboard or mouse click) can occur except to objects on the dialog box. The program must hide or close the dialog box (usually in response to some user action) before input to the calling program can occur.

The following code example creates an application that enables the user to open rich text (.rtf) files within the RichTextBox control.

' The following example displays an application that provides the ability to  
' open rich text files (rtf) into the RichTextBox. The example demonstrates  
' using the FolderBrowserDialog to set the default directory for opening files. 
' The OpenFileDialog class is used to open the file. 
Imports System
Imports System.Drawing
Imports System.Windows.Forms
Imports System.IO

Public Class FolderBrowserDialogExampleForm 
    Inherits Form

    Private folderBrowserDialog1 As FolderBrowserDialog
    Private openFileDialog1 As OpenFileDialog 

    Private richTextBox1 As RichTextBox

    Private mainMenu1 As MainMenu
    Private fileMenuItem As MenuItem
    Private WithEvents folderMenuItem As MenuItem, _
                       closeMenuItem As MenuItem, _
                       openMenuItem As MenuItem

    Private openFileName As String, folderName As String 

    Private fileOpened As Boolean = False 

    Public Sub New()
        Me.mainMenu1 = New System.Windows.Forms.MainMenu() 
        Me.fileMenuItem = New System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem() 
        Me.openMenuItem = New System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem() 
        Me.folderMenuItem = New System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem() 
        Me.closeMenuItem = New System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem() 

        Me.openFileDialog1 = New System.Windows.Forms.OpenFileDialog() 
        Me.folderBrowserDialog1 = New System.Windows.Forms.FolderBrowserDialog() 
        Me.richTextBox1 = New System.Windows.Forms.RichTextBox() 

        Me.mainMenu1.MenuItems.Add(Me.fileMenuItem) 
        Me.fileMenuItem.MenuItems.AddRange( _
                    New System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem() {Me.openMenuItem, _
                                                         Me.closeMenuItem, _
                                                         Me.folderMenuItem}) 
        Me.fileMenuItem.Text = "File"  

        Me.openMenuItem.Text = "Open..."  

        Me.folderMenuItem.Text = "Select Directory..."  

        Me.closeMenuItem.Text = "Close"  
        Me.closeMenuItem.Enabled = False  

        Me.openFileDialog1.DefaultExt = "rtf"  
        Me.openFileDialog1.Filter = "rtf files (*.rtf)|*.rtf"  

        ' Set the Help text description for the FolderBrowserDialog. 
        Me.folderBrowserDialog1.Description = _
            "Select the directory that you want to use As the default."  

        ' Do not allow the user to create New files via the FolderBrowserDialog. 
        Me.folderBrowserDialog1.ShowNewFolderButton = False  

        ' Default to the My Documents folder. 
        Me.folderBrowserDialog1.RootFolder = Environment.SpecialFolder.Personal 

        Me.richTextBox1.AcceptsTab = True  
        Me.richTextBox1.Location = New System.Drawing.Point(8, 8) 
        Me.richTextBox1.Size = New System.Drawing.Size(280, 344) 
        Me.richTextBox1.Anchor = AnchorStyles.Top Or AnchorStyles.Left Or _
                                 AnchorStyles.Bottom Or AnchorStyles.Right 

        Me.ClientSize = New System.Drawing.Size(296, 360) 
        Me.Controls.Add(Me.richTextBox1) 
        Me.Menu = Me.mainMenu1 
        Me.Text = "RTF Document Browser"  
    End Sub

    <STAThread()> _
    Shared Sub Main()
        Application.Run(New FolderBrowserDialogExampleForm())
    End Sub 

    ' Bring up a dialog to open a file. 
    Private Sub openMenuItem_Click(sender As object, e As System.EventArgs) _
        Handles openMenuItem.Click
        ' If a file is not opened, then set the initial directory to the 
        ' FolderBrowserDialog.SelectedPath value. 
        If (not fileOpened) Then
            openFileDialog1.InitialDirectory = folderBrowserDialog1.SelectedPath 
            openFileDialog1.FileName = nothing 
        End If 

        ' Display the openFile dialog. 
        Dim result As DialogResult = openFileDialog1.ShowDialog() 

        ' OK button was pressed. 
        If (result = DialogResult.OK) Then
            openFileName = openFileDialog1.FileName 
            Try 
                ' Output the requested file in richTextBox1. 
                Dim s As Stream = openFileDialog1.OpenFile() 
                richTextBox1.LoadFile(s, RichTextBoxStreamType.RichText) 
                s.Close()     

                fileOpened = True  

            Catch exp As Exception
                MessageBox.Show("An error occurred while attempting to load the file. The error is:" _
                                + System.Environment.NewLine + exp.ToString() + System.Environment.NewLine) 
                fileOpened = False  
            End Try
            Invalidate() 

            closeMenuItem.Enabled = fileOpened 

        ' Cancel button was pressed. 
        ElseIf (result = DialogResult.Cancel) Then
            return 
        End If 
    End Sub 

    ' Close the current file. 
    Private Sub closeMenuItem_Click(sender As object, e As System.EventArgs) _
        Handles closeMenuItem.Click
        richTextBox1.Text = "" 
        fileOpened = False 

        closeMenuItem.Enabled = False  
    End Sub 

    ' Bring up a dialog to chose a folder path in which to open or save a file. 
    Private Sub folderMenuItem_Click(sender As object, e As System.EventArgs) _
        Handles folderMenuItem.Click
        ' Show the FolderBrowserDialog. 
        Dim result As DialogResult = folderBrowserDialog1.ShowDialog() 

        If ( result = DialogResult.OK ) Then
            folderName = folderBrowserDialog1.SelectedPath 
            If (not fileOpened) Then 
                ' No file is opened, bring up openFileDialog in selected path.
                openFileDialog1.InitialDirectory = folderName 
                openFileDialog1.FileName = nothing
                openMenuItem.PerformClick() 
            End If 
        End If 
    End Sub 

End Class

Any public static (Shared in Visual Basic) members of this type are thread safe. Any instance members are not guaranteed to be thread safe.

Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP Starter Edition, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2000 SP4, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 98

The .NET Framework and .NET Compact Framework do not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.

.NET Framework

Supported in: 3.5, 3.0, 2.0, 1.1
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