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C# WPF FolderBrowserDialog - Unable to retrieve the root folder

I am using the FolderBrowserDialog to select the Folder where user can save file. While opening the folder browse dialog, application get crashed and raised below exception.
System.InvalidOperationException: Unable to retrieve the root folder.
at System.Windows.Forms.FolderBrowserDialog.RunDialog(IntPtr hWndOwner)
at System.Windows.Forms.CommonDialog.ShowDialog(IWin32Window owner)
at TestApp.GenerateExcelReport()
Users are using the applications from cloud as My application is launched on Citrix Environment. Hence not all the users has facing this issue but few of them are facing.
string folderPath = "X:\\Reports";
if (!Directory.Exists(folderPath))
{
Directory.CreateDirectory(folderPath);
}
FolderBrowserDialog folderDialog = new FolderBrowserDialog();
folderDialog.ShowNewFolderButton = true;
folderDialog.SelectedPath = folderPath;
DialogResult dialogResult = folderDialog.ShowDialog();
if (dialogResult == DialogResult.OK)
{
folderPath = folderDialog.SelectedPath;
}
else
{
return;
}
Kindly suggest what can be the root cause of getting this issue while showing the FolderBrowseDialog. Also, suggest the potential fixes to prevent this exception.
Thanks & Regards,
Hiren Lad

This occurs for me when the folder %USERPROFILE%\Desktop doesn't exist. Creating that folder resolved the issue. Note that File Explorer may show a Desktop folder in %USERPROFILE% even if Desktop doesn't actually exist. You can verify whether Desktop exists by running dir %USERPROFILE% in cmd.

I'm late but the fix for this issue might be if you set the RootFolder property of FolderBrowserDialog other than the default RootFolder.
e.g
FolderBrowserDialog folderDialog = new FolderBrowserDialog();
folderDialog.RootFolder = Environment.SpecialFolder.MyComputer;

How can i save files in folder within the IIS of outside of the Application folder in asp.net

In my web application, i have some files those are saving within application it's creating a folder for saving files but i need to save those file outside of the application and inside of IIS.how can i do this?
With in application Folder we are using below code
Server.MapPath(Path)
For Saving in IIS How can i Write?
Thank you

you need to create a virtual directory that points ti the folder outside.
Go to IIS right click on your website. click on Add Virtual directry from the menu.Give an alias for the directory select your desired folder and you are done. it will consider this outside folder as an internal folder and work the same way. check this link How to: Create and Configure Virtual Directories in IIS 7.0
Disclaimer: but you will have to do this after hosting to iis i.e publishing. while using visual studio in dev environment i.e debugging it will store in internal directories only
Edit: for creating virtual directories this is the code. I have not tested its validity.
static void CreateVDir(string metabasePath, string vDirName, string physicalPath)
{
// metabasePath is of the form "IIS://<servername>/<service>/<siteID>/Root[/<vdir>]"
// for example "IIS://localhost/W3SVC/1/Root"
// vDirName is of the form "<name>", for example, "MyNewVDir"
// physicalPath is of the form "<drive>:\<path>", for example,"C:\Inetpub\Wwwroot"
try
{
DirectoryEntry site = new DirectoryEntry(metabasePath);
string className = site.SchemaClassName.ToString();
if ((className.EndsWith("Server")) || (className.EndsWith("VirtualDir")))
{
DirectoryEntries vdirs = site.Children;
DirectoryEntry newVDir = vdirs.Add(vDirName, (className.Replace("Service", "VirtualDir")));
newVDir.Properties["Path"][0] = physicalPath;
newVDir.Properties["AccessScript"][0] = true;
// These properties are necessary for an application to be created.
newVDir.Properties["AppFriendlyName"][0] = vDirName;
newVDir.Properties["AppIsolated"][0] = "1";
newVDir.Properties["AppRoot"][0] = "/LM" + metabasePath.Substring(metabasePath.IndexOf("/", ("IIS://".Length)));
newVDir.CommitChanges();
}
else
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
}
}

Normally you can not create a folder outside the root path i.e. if you have your application in say C:\inetpub\testapp you can only create a folder inside testapp. This restriction is for security reason where a web server is not supposed to allow access to anything above root folder.
Moreover it's not recommended to write any folders/files in the root folder as writing to root folder cause appdomain to recycle after certain number of writes (default is 15) causing session loss. See my answer here.
However there is a workaround
Add a path of your server to web.config and then fetch it in your code.Use something like below in the appsettings section of web.config
<add key="logfilesPath" value="C:\inetpub\MyAppLogs" />
Create a folder of above path and add Users group to your folder and give that group full permission (read/write). (Adding permission is very important)
In your code you can fetch as below
string loggerPath = (ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["logfilesPath"]);
Hope this helps

Directory.CreateDirectory access to path is denied?

I have server-client application, it's a file manager
my problem is when I go inside a folder which requires access control like system folders, it becomes to read-only, but I need to move/delete or create new folder, how can I get the permission to do that?
here's how I create a new folder at the server side
public void NewFolder(string path)
{
try
{
string name = #"\New Folder";
string current = name;
int i = 0;
while (Directory.Exists(path + current))
{
i++;
current = String.Format("{0} {1}", name, i);
}
Directory.CreateDirectory(path + current);
Explore(path); //this line is to refresh the items in the client side after creating the new folder
}
catch (Exception e)
{
sendInfo(e.Message, "error");
}
}

There are often directories on a drive that even a user with administrator privileges cannot access. A directory with a name like "HDDRecovery" is quite likely to be troublesome like this. Surely it contains sensitive data that helps the user recover from disk failure. Another directory that fits this category is "c:\system volume information", it contains restore point data.
An admin can change the permissions on folders like this. But of course that doesn't solve the real problem nor is it a wise thing to do. Your user can't and shouldn't. Be sure to write code that deals with permission problems like this, simply catch the IOExeption. Keep the user out of trouble by never showing a directory that has the Hidden or System attribute set. They are the "don't mess with me" attributes.

If you want to remove directory read-only attribute use this: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/vblanguage/thread/cb75ea00-f9c1-41e5-ac8e-296c302827a4
If you want to access system folders you can run your program as local administrator.

I had a similar problem (asp.net MVC vs2017) with this code:
Directory.CreateDirectory("~/temp");
Here is my solution:
// Create path on your web server
System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory(System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/temp"));

I also ran into an issue similar to this, but I was able to manually navigate through Windows Explorer and create directories.
However, my web app, running in VS on my laptop, hosted through my local IIS and not the built-in IIS deal for VS, was triggering the Access Denied issue.
So when I was hitting the error in code, I drilled down to glean more data from the System.Environment object and found the user, which of course was the App Pool that my app was running under in IIS.
So I opened IIS and opened the Advanced Settings for the app pool in question and changed the Identity to run under Network Service. Click OK. "cmd -> iisreset" for good measure. Try the app again, and SUCCESS!!!!

I had the same issue when creating a directory. I used DirectorySecurity as shown below:
DirectorySecurity securityRules = new DirectorySecurity();
securityRules.AddAccessRule(new FileSystemAccessRule(#"Domain\AdminAccount1", FileSystemRights.Read, AccessControlType.Allow));
securityRules.AddAccessRule(new FileSystemAccessRule(#"Domain\YourAppAllowedGroup", FileSystemRights.FullControl, AccessControlType.Allow));
DirectoryInfo di = Directory.CreateDirectory(path + current, securityRules);
Also keep in mind about the security as explained by Hans Passant's answer.
Full details can be found on MSDN.
So the complete code:
public void NewFolder(string path)
{
try
{
string name = #"\New Folder";
string current = name;
int i = 0;
while (Directory.Exists(path + current))
{
i++;
current = String.Format("{0} {1}", name, i);
}
//Directory.CreateDirectory(path + current);
DirectorySecurity securityRules = new DirectorySecurity();
securityRules.AddAccessRule(new FileSystemAccessRule(#"Domain\AdminAccount1", FileSystemRights.Read, AccessControlType.Allow));
securityRules.AddAccessRule(new FileSystemAccessRule(#"Domain\YourAppAllowedGroup", FileSystemRights.FullControl, AccessControlType.Allow));
DirectoryInfo di = Directory.CreateDirectory(path + current, securityRules);
Explore(path); //this line is to refresh the items in the client side after creating the new folder
}
catch (Exception e)
{
sendInfo(e.Message, "error");
}
}

My suspicion is that when you are running the application in client/server mode, the server portion needs to be running as Administrator, in addition to possibly removing read-only or system flags, to be able to do what you want.
That said, I agree with #HansPassant- it sounds like what you are trying to do is ill-advised.

Solved:
Directory created on remote server using below code & setting.
Share folder and give the full permission rights also in Advance
setting in the folder.
DirectoryInfo di = Directory.CreateDirectory(#"\\191.168.01.01\Test\Test1");
Test is destination folder where to create new Test1 folder(directory)

How can I get another application's installation path programmatically?

I'd like to know where the installation path for an application is. I know it usually is in ...\Program Files... but I guess some people install it in different locations. I do know the name of the application.
Thank you.

The ideal way to find a program's installation path (on Windows) is to read it from the registry. Most installers will create a registry key for that program that contains the installation path. Exactly where this key is and what it will be named varies depending on the program in question.
To find if the program has a key in the registry, open 'regedit' and use the Edit > Find option to try and locate a key with the program name. If such a key exists, you can read it using the RegistryKey class in the .NET Framework library.
If the program does not have a registry key then another option is just to ask the user to locate the .exe file with the OpenFileDialog, although this is obviously not ideal.

Many (most?) programs create an App Paths registry key. Have a look at
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths

If you know the application in question (as compared to any application) registry key is the probably the best option (if one exists).
The install might put in its own custom "install path key" somewhere (so do a find as Fara mentioned) or it might be in the uninstall section for installed programs, so you could check:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
But be aware that any new version of an install could change the key it writes out, both for a custom key or for the uninstall entry. So checking the registry should probably be only for a known install\version.
tep

Best way is to use Installer APIs to find the program location.
You can write a Managed wrapper over the APIs
Search for MsiGetProductInfo
Reference: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa369558(VS.85).aspx

You can use MSI (I wrote a C# wrapper for it here https://github.com/alialavia/MSINet). Here is a simple example:
var location = "";
foreach (var p in InstalledProduct.Enumerate())
{
try
{
if (p.InstalledProductName.Contains("AppName"))
{
location = p.InstallLocation;
break;
}
}
catch { }
}

Take a look in the registry.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\
or
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\
Each of the above contain a list of sub-keys, one for each installed application (as it appears, for example, in the "Programs and Features" applet)
You can search for your application there, or if you know the product code, access it directly.
public string GetInstallPath(string applicationName)
{
var installPath = FindApplicationPath(#"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall", applicationName);
if (installPath == null)
{
installPath = FindApplicationPath(#"SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall", applicationName);
}
return installPath;
}
private string FindApplicationPath(string keyPath, string applicationName)
{
var hklm = Registry.LocalMachine;
var uninstall = hklm.OpenSubKey(keyPath);
foreach (var productSubKey in uninstall.GetSubKeyNames())
{
var product = uninstall.OpenSubKey(productSubKey);
var displayName = product.GetValue("DisplayName");
if (displayName != null && displayName.ToString() == applicationName)
{
return product.GetValue("InstallLocation").ToString();
}
}
return null;
}

How to Delete a file using asp.net?

i write the code in asp.net using c# to delete the file in my computer, but it is not deleting please help me thank u. this is my code, i write in button click event
string path = "E:\\sasi\\delt.doc";
FileInfo myfileinf = new FileInfo(path);
myfileinf.Delete();

public void DeleteFileFromFolder(string StrFilename)
{
string strPhysicalFolder = Server.MapPath("..\\");
string strFileFullPath = strPhysicalFolder + StrFilename;
if (IO.File.Exists(strFileFullPath)) {
IO.File.Delete(strFileFullPath);
}
}

In order to delete a file you must ensure that the account has sufficient permissions. In general ASP.NET applications run under limited permission account such as Network Service. For example if your application runs under IIS 6 you could go to the Administration Console and set a custom account in the application pool properties:
alt text http://i.msdn.microsoft.com/Bb969101.SharePoint_SQL_TshootingFig3%28en-US,SQL.90%29.jpg
You need to ensure that the account is member of the IIS_WPG group.

Make sure the ASP user has permissions to this folder. By default this user is not given access to much of the harddrive..