How to check whether a folder is open or process is being run in windows explorer in cmd?

Question

I'd like to write a .bat file that opens multiple folders if none of the aforementioned folders or files are open, and closes all of the multiple folders if any of them are open in Windows Explorer or being run by Windows.

I think I can solve the conditional problem with this method mentioned on the cmd.exe: complex conditions? post but I cannot get it to work for my needs for everything I've tried.

set COND=
if COND1 set COND=1
if COND2 set COND=1
if defined COND ...

I am not sure how I check for what folders are open in Windows Explorer but I found the close solution on the cmd: Open explorer window of folder if not already open post but I still cannot work out the correct logic to use after several tries.

Is there a simpler way to check for whether a folder is open, or a process is run?

Answer 1

Below is a batch file that you can set the values enclosed by double quotes and separate by commas to be the paths to the folders you want to open (i.e. <"FolderPathValue1">,<"FolderPathValue1">) in the SET oPenArray= batch variable.

This does use some dynamic PowerShell logic to get the folders that are opened and put those into a file so the batch FOR logic can iterate and use conditional logic accordingly.

To understand the PowerShell logic better if you wish, read over the applicable Supporting Resources links; otherwise, you only need to be concerned with putting the folder paths in the SET oPenArray= variable.

Batch Script

@ECHO OFF

SET oPenArray="C:\Folder\Test","C:\Folder123\Prod"

SET "tmpFile=%temp%\oFolder.lst"
IF EXIST "%tmpFile%" DEL /Q /F "%tmpFile%"

CALL :PowerShell
CD /D "%PowerShellDir%"
Powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "& '%PSScript%'"
FOR /F "USEBACKQ TOKENS=*" %%A IN ("%tmpFile%") DO (
    FOR %%B IN (%oPenArray%) DO (
    IF /I NOT [%%~A]==[%%~B] EXPLORER "%%~B"
    )
)
EXIT

:PowerShell
SET PowerShellDir=C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0
SET PSScript=%temp%\~tmpOpenFolders.ps1
IF EXIST "%PSScript%" DEL /Q /F "%PSScript%"

ECHO $app     = New-Object -COM 'Shell.Application'                             >> "%PSScript%"
ECHO $t       = $app.Windows() ^| Select-Object LocationURL                     >> "%PSScript%"
ECHO $x       = $t ^| %% {[string]$_.LocationURL -Replace "file:////", ""}      >> "%PSScript%"
ECHO $folders = $x.Replace("file:///", "").Replace("/","\").Replace("%%20"," ") >> "%PSScript%"
ECHO $folders ^| Out-File "%tmpFile%" -Encoding "ascii" -Append                 >> "%PSScript%"
GOTO :EOF

---

Supporting Resources

• FOR /F

• FOR /?

      tokens=x,y,m-n  - specifies which tokens from each line are to
                        be passed to the for body for each iteration.
                        This will cause additional variable names to
                        be allocated.  The m-n form is a range,
                        specifying the mth through the nth tokens.  If
                        the last character in the tokens= string is an
                        asterisk, then an additional variable is
                        allocated and receives the remaining text on
                        the line after the last token parsed.
      usebackq        - specifies that the new semantics are in force,
                        where a back quoted string is executed as a
                        command and a single quoted string is a
                        literal string command and allows the use of
                        double quotes to quote file names in
                        file-set.
  

• IF

• Get report of all open explorer windows

• Replace()

• ForEach-Object

  Standard Aliases for Foreach-Object: the '%' symbol, ForEach

• Out-File
• Call