Can not delete files from Recent folder - c#

I am writing a Software that can delete Temporary files, Prefetch data, files in Recent folder and so on. My problem is I can delete files from Temp folder successfully, but when I try for Recent folder, an exception is thrown, "Access to path...is denied".
PS: According to some other questions, I have set File attributes to normal, but still no luck. Please help me on this issue. For your better understand, I put some code here:
public Boolean CleanRecentData()
{
isAllClean = true;
String SysRecentPath = System.Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("USERPROFILE") + "\\Recent";
DirectoryInfo SysRecDir = new DirectoryInfo(SysRecentPath);
File.SetAttributes(SysRecentPath, FileAttributes.Normal);
foreach (FileInfo fi in SysRecDir.GetFiles()) //Access Denied
//Exception is thrown here
{
try
{
fi.Delete();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
recentLogLines.AppendLine(ex.Message);
isAllClean = false;
}
}
foreach (DirectoryInfo dir in SysRecDir.GetDirectories())
{
try
{
dir.Delete(true);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
recentLogLines.AppendLine(ex.Message);
isAllClean = false;
}
}
return isAllClean;
}

Are you able to access the Recent folder via Windows Explorer?
You could go ahead and change the permissions in your system, but NOT in your users systems.
Therefore you could handle this exception condition in two ways.
You need to check if you have file access before accessing, using FileIOPermission but this might be redundant and wasteful if you are doing it on too many files.
Just try to open the file and put your effort into a good exception handler if it fails
Reference

Related

C# delete all the things inside the file

I'm trying to delete some files from a specific directory. But there are some errors.
I want my program to ignore these problems.
string[] myFiles = Directory.GetFiles(#"C:\Windows\prefetch");
foreach (string f in myFiles)
{
File.Delete(f);
}
By "errors" you mean thrown exceptions? Directory.GetFiles and File.Delete will throw exceptions if they can't find the directory/file or if you dont have permissions to access it, etc.
Since you want them ignored, you can just catch them and ignore them.
try
{
string[] myFiles = Directory.GetFiles(#"C:\Windows\prefetch");
foreach (string f in myFiles)
{
File.Delete(f);
}
}
catch (Exception)
{
//do nothing
}
use this and you will delete the entire directory and respective files recursively
Directory.Delete(#"C:\Windows\prefetch", true);

Exclude System Hardlinks from File.Copy

So my problem is that I want to export my user account.
But inside C:\%user%\AppData\Local\ are System Hardlinks e.g.: Application Data which I obviously have no right to use them.
Is there a way to exclude those System Hardlinks from the copying process?
I'm not sure what you mean with hard links, but this might help you
foreach (var dir in new DirectoryInfo(#"c:\users\xxxxxx\AppData\Local").GetDirectories())
{
if (dir.Attributes.HasFlag(FileAttributes.ReparsePoint))
{
Console.WriteLine(dir.Name + " is symbolic, skip it");
}
else
{
//do your copy here
}
}
So I fixed the issue with Exception handling, doing it this way:
FileInfo[] sourceFiles = null;
try {
sourceFiles = new DirectoryInfo(sourcePath).GetFiles();
} catch (Exception ex) {
WriteLog(LogPath, ex + "");
return;
}
Since I'm a bit new to exception handling, I couldn't work it out for the first few hours on this problem.

Deleting Files with c#

I´m making a program to delete some files that I have on my PC. But when I try to do it, I get some error messages like this:
If you are attempting to access a file, make sure it is not ReadOnly.
Make Sure you have sufficient privileges to access this resource.
Get general Help for this exception.
foreach (string subFich in SubFicheiros)
{
listBox.Items.Add("- Deleting File: " + subFich.Substring(Pasta.Length + 1, subFich.Length - Pasta.Length - 1));
ficheirosEncontrador++;
}
try
{
Directory.Delete(Pasta, true);
}
catch (IOException)
{
Thread.Sleep(0);
//The Message Error appears here on this code right below:
Directory.Delete(Pasta, true);
}
catch (UnauthorizedAccessException)
{
Directory.Delete(Pasta, true);
}
}
I would like to get some help with this.
How do i ask the user, to let me get the privilegies to delete it.
Well.. what your code doing is: You're deleting the directory and if it gives any exception then you're again trying to do the same step where you got exception.
First of all error is because files are set to read only or because you dont have enough rights to delete the directory (or probably some process is using the files which you are trying to delete)
foreach (string subFich in SubFicheiros)
{
listBox.Items.Add("- Deleting File: " + subFich.Substring(Pasta.Length + 1, subFich.Length - Pasta.Length - 1));
ficheirosEncontrador++;
}
try
{
var di = new DirectoryInfo(Pasta);
di.Attributes &= ~FileAttributes.ReadOnly;
Directory.Delete(Pasta, true);
}
catch (Exception EE)
{
MessageBox.Show("Error: "+ EE.toString());
}
if this code still doesn't work check if you have admin rights to delete that folder
Sounds like your file is read-only, or you do not have the right to remove the file you want based on your user login.

Access to the path 'c:\$Recycle.Bin\S-1-5-18' is denied

I have this code to copy all files from source-directory, F:\, to destination-directory.
public void Copy(string sourceDir, string targetDir)
{
//Exception occurs at this line.
string[] files = System.IO.Directory.GetFiles(sourceDir, "*.jpg",
SearchOption.AllDirectories);
foreach (string srcPath in files)
{
File.Copy(srcPath, srcPath.Replace(sourceDir, targetDir), true);
}
}
and getting an exception.
If I omit SearchOption.AllDirectories and it works but only copies files from F:\
Use following function instead of System.IO.Directory.GetFiles:
IEnumerable<String> GetAllFiles(string path, string searchPattern)
{
return System.IO.Directory.EnumerateFiles(path, searchPattern).Union(
System.IO.Directory.EnumerateDirectories(path).SelectMany(d =>
{
try
{
return GetAllFiles(d,searchPattern);
}
catch (UnauthorizedAccessException e)
{
return Enumerable.Empty<String>();
}
}));
}
File system objects are subject to security. Some file system objects are secured in such a way that they can only be accessed by certain users. You are encountering a file to which the user executing the code does not have sufficient rights to access.
The reason that you don't have access rights for this particular folder is to protect the security of the different users on the system. The folder in question is the recycle bin on that drive. And each different user has their own private recycle bin, that only they have permission to access. If anybody could access any other user's recycle bin, then users would be able to read each other's files, a clear violation of the system's security policy.
Perhaps the simplest way around this is to skip hidden folders at the root level of the drive. That simple change would be enough to solve your problem because you surely don't want to copy recycle bins.
That folder is a secure system folder (your bin, each drive has its own bin). Just place your file.copy into a try catch statement and ignore/log all the failures. That way you will only copy actual files and skip system files/folders.
If you really want to avoid the try catch statement. Use the fileinfo and directory info classes to figure out which folders/files are of the system and will throw an exception.
This should do the trick:
private IEnumerable<string> RecursiveFileSearch(string path, string pattern, ICollection<string> filePathCollector = null)
{
try
{
filePathCollector = filePathCollector ?? new LinkedList<string>();
var matchingFilePaths = Directory.GetFiles(path, pattern);
foreach(var matchingFile in matchingFilePaths)
{
filePathCollector.Add(matchingFile);
}
var subDirectories = Directory.EnumerateDirectories(path);
foreach (var subDirectory in subDirectories)
{
RecursiveFileSearch(subDirectory, pattern, filePathCollector);
}
return filePathCollector;
}
catch (Exception error)
{
bool isIgnorableError = error is PathTooLongException ||
error is UnauthorizedAccessException;
if (isIgnorableError)
{
return Enumerable.Empty<string>();
}
throw error;
}
}

UnauthorizedAccessException in my own directory

I'm trying to iterate over the items on my start menu, but I keep receiving the UnauthorizedAccessException. I'm the directory's owner and my user is an administrator.
Here's my method (it's in a dll project):
// root = C:\Users\Fernando\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
private void walkDirectoryTree(DirectoryInfo root) {
try {
FileInfo[] files = root.GetFiles("*.*");
foreach (FileInfo file in files) {
records.Add(new Record {Path = file.FullName});
}
DirectoryInfo[] subDirectories = root.GetDirectories();
foreach (DirectoryInfo subDirectory in subDirectories) {
walkDirectoryTree(subDirectory);
}
} catch (UnauthorizedAccessException e) {
// do some logging stuff
throw; //for debugging
}
}
The code fail when it starts to iterate over the subdirectories. What else should I do? I've already tried to create the manifest file, but it didn't work.
Another point (if is relevant): I'm just running some unit tests with visual studio (which is executed as administrator).
Based on your description, it appears there is a directory to which your user does not have access when running with UAC enabled. There is nothing inherently wrong with your code and the behavior in that situation is by design. There is nothing you can do in your code to get around the fact that your account doesn't have access to those directories in the context it is currently running.
What you'll need to do is account for the directory you don't have access to. The best way is probably by adding a few extension methods. For example
public static FileInfo[] GetFilesSafe(this DirectoryRoot root, string path) {
try {
return root.GetFiles(path);
} catch ( UnauthorizedAccessException ) {
return new FileInfo[0];
}
}

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