Possible values for InvokeMember to get specific property value

Question

I'm referring this thread to refresh the windows explorer, I want to refresh some windows only, which means I want to filter the opened windows according to their title or path. Let me copy the code from that thread for more clarification:

Guid CLSID_ShellApplication = new Guid("13709620-C279-11CE-A49E-444553540000");
Type shellApplicationType = Type.GetTypeFromCLSID(CLSID_ShellApplication, true);

object shellApplication = Activator.CreateInstance(shellApplicationType);
object windows = shellApplicationType.InvokeMember("Windows", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, null, shellApplication, new object[] { });

Type windowsType = windows.GetType();
object count = windowsType.InvokeMember("Count", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.GetProperty, null, windows, null);
for (int i = 0; i < (int)count; i++)
{
    object item = windowsType.InvokeMember("Item", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, null, windows, new object[] { i });
    Type itemType = item.GetType();

    string itemName = (string)itemType.InvokeMember("Name", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.GetProperty, null, item, null);
    if (itemName == "Windows Explorer")
    {
        // Here I want to check whether this window need to be refreshed
        // based on the opened path in that window
        // or with the title of that window
        // How do I check that here
        itemType.InvokeMember("Refresh", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, null, item, null);
    }
}

What I understood from the above code is: By using this line windowsType.InvokeMember("Item", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, null, windows, new object[] { i }); we will get the current window object, and then we are using .InvokeMember("Name".. to get the name of that object, like wise what should I pass to InvokeMember method to get the path of that object or the title of that window? or can anyone tell me the possible alternative values for "Name" in the above statement?

What I'm expecting is some code like the following:

 string itemPath = (string)itemType.InvokeMember("Something here", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.GetProperty, null, item, null);

OR

 string itemTitle = (string)itemType.InvokeMember("Something here", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.GetProperty, null, item, null);

I can give you more information if you need, expecting expert's suggestion to solve this issue,

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

This is the way you had to write late-bound COM client code in the Bad Old Days. Considerable pain and suffering to get it going, what is in the snippet is not close yet. I'll first propose a very different way to do this, there just isn't any point in doing it late-bound since these COM objects are available on any Windows version and are never going to change anymore. The "Embed Interop Types" feature supported since VS2010 removes any good reason to avoid it.

Project > Add Reference > COM tab. Tick "Microsoft Internet Controls" and "Microsoft Shell Controls and Automation". Now you can write it early-bound, nice and compact with all the benefits of IntelliSense to help you find the correct members and avoid typos:

var shl = new Shell32.Shell();
foreach (SHDocVw.InternetExplorer win in shl.Windows()) {
    var path = win.LocationURL;
    if (!path.StartsWith("file:///")) continue;
    path = System.IO.Path.GetFullPath(path.Substring(8));
    if (path.StartsWith("C")) win.Refresh();
}

A slightly silly example, it refreshes any Explorer window who's displayed path is located on the C drive. Note how the Path property is not useful to discover what is displayed, LocationURL is needed. You might have to find the distinction between Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer windows (aka "File Explorer"), albeit that IE can also display directory content so I think this is the most correct version.

If you really want to do this late-bound then use the dynamic keyword to minimize the suffering. In this case almost identical:

dynamic shl = Activator.CreateInstance(Type.GetTypeFromProgID("Shell.Application"));
foreach (var win in shl.Windows()) {
    string path = win.LocationURL;
    if (!path.StartsWith("file:///")) continue;
    path = System.IO.Path.GetFullPath(path.Substring(8));
    if (path.StartsWith("C")) win.Refresh();
}

Answering your question explicitly, use "LocationURL".