How can I open Windows Explorer to a certain directory from within a WPF app?

In a WPF application, when a user clicks on a button I want to open the Windows explorer to a certain directory, how do I do that?

I would expect something like this:

Windows.OpenExplorer("c:\test");

Why not Process.Start(@"c:\test");?

Process.Start("explorer.exe" , @"C:\Users");

I had to use this, the other way of just specifying the tgt dir would shut the explorer window when my application terminated.

This should work:

Process.Start(@"<directory goes here>")

Or if you'd like a method to run programs/open files and/or folders:

private void StartProcess(string path)
{
    ProcessStartInfo StartInformation = new ProcessStartInfo();

    StartInformation.FileName = path;

    Process process = Process.Start(StartInformation);

    process.EnableRaisingEvents = true;
}

And then call the method and in the parenthesis put either the directory of the file and/or folder there or the name of the application. Hope this helped!

You can use System.Diagnostics.Process.Start.

Or use the WinApi directly with something like the following, which will launch explorer.exe. You can use the fourth parameter to ShellExecute to give it a starting directory.

public partial class Window1 : Window
{
    public Window1()
    {
        ShellExecute(IntPtr.Zero, "open", "explorer.exe", "", "", ShowCommands.SW_NORMAL);
        InitializeComponent();
    }

    public enum ShowCommands : int
    {
        SW_HIDE = 0,
        SW_SHOWNORMAL = 1,
        SW_NORMAL = 1,
        SW_SHOWMINIMIZED = 2,
        SW_SHOWMAXIMIZED = 3,
        SW_MAXIMIZE = 3,
        SW_SHOWNOACTIVATE = 4,
        SW_SHOW = 5,
        SW_MINIMIZE = 6,
        SW_SHOWMINNOACTIVE = 7,
        SW_SHOWNA = 8,
        SW_RESTORE = 9,
        SW_SHOWDEFAULT = 10,
        SW_FORCEMINIMIZE = 11,
        SW_MAX = 11
    }

    [DllImport("shell32.dll")]
    static extern IntPtr ShellExecute(
        IntPtr hwnd,
        string lpOperation,
        string lpFile,
        string lpParameters,
        string lpDirectory,
        ShowCommands nShowCmd);
}

The declarations come from the pinvoke.net website.

Here's what worked for me:

Basically use the command line to call "start C:/path" And exit the terminal afterward, so "start c:/path && exit"

WindowsExplorerOpen(@"C:/path");

        public static void WindowsExplorerOpen(string path)
        {
            CommandLine(path, $"start {path}");
        }

        private static void CommandLine(string workingDirectory, string Command)
        {
            ProcessStartInfo ProcessInfo;
            Process Process;

            ProcessInfo = new ProcessStartInfo("cmd.exe", "/K " + Command + " && exit");
            ProcessInfo.WorkingDirectory = workingDirectory;
            ProcessInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
            ProcessInfo.UseShellExecute = true;
            ProcessInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;

            Process = Process.Start(ProcessInfo);
            Process.WaitForExit();
        }

Neither of these worked for me:

Process.Start(@"c:\test");
Process.Start("explorer.exe" , @"C:\Users");