Opening a subfolder of %MyDocuments% using Shell explorer.exe

[CES]

All,
I was hoping that someone might be able to help me with a problem I am having opening Windows Explorer from a forms element.

The following code works fine:

Shell "explorer.exe / e, ""%MyDocuments%\"", vbNormalFocus"

However when I try to access a subdirectory of %MyDocuments% using the following, Windows Explorer just opens the root directory of my documents and ignores a subdirectory request.

Shell "explorer.exe / e, ""%MyDocuments%\SomeFolder"", vbNormalFocus"

Additionally when Explorer opens under either of the above it opens minimized to the taskbar(I'm using Windows Vista and Office 2007).

if anyone has a clue as to how to correct either of these problems I would be grateful. Thanks in advance. - CES

 

[Allen Browne]

Open a command prompt, and enter:
SET
You will see a list of environment variables.
Use a name such as homepath.

You can open explorer to the specific folder using the /select switch, e.g.:
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e, /select,"%homepath%\Documents"

Or you could just ShellExecute to open the default file manager like this:
http://www.mvps.org/access/api/api0018.htm

 

[Wei Lu [MSFT]]

Hello CES,

This issue is because Vista has changed the behavior of the explorer when
you did not specify a right folder path.

In previous OS, when you did not specify a correct folder path, explorer
will give a error message to let you know. But in vista, explorer will only
redirect you to the My Documents.

According to your description, I assume that you did not add the
environment variable "%MyDocuments%" in your computer because it is not a
default environment variable.

You need to add this variable in your computer and direct to your own
document.

Or, you could use the %UserProfile%\Documents\ to direct to the documents
folder.

Hope this will be helpful!

Sincerely,

Wei Lu

Microsoft Online Community Support

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[Douglas J. Steele]

I didn't think Access was capable of resolving references to environment
variables using % notation.

I thought you needed to use the Environ function to get at the values of the
variables, something like:

Shell """" & Environ("SystemRoot") & "\explorer.exe"" /e, /select,""" &
Environ("homepath" & "\Documents"""

 

[Allen Browne]

Doug, you are right for the first environment variable, which must be
resolved to get the path to the executable.

The 2nd one explorer can resolve, so you can get away with:
Shell( Environ("SystemRoot") & "\explorer.exe /e,
/select,""%homepath%\Documents""")

 

[CES]

Doug, you are right for the first environment variable, which must be
resolved to get the path to the executable.

The 2nd one explorer can resolve, so you can get away with:
Shell( Environ("SystemRoot") & "\explorer.exe /e,
/select,""%homepath%\Documents""")

Allen,
Unfortunately Using %homepath%\Documents assumes that the "My Documents" folder resides under C:\Users\UserName\Documents, in my case %MyDocuments% points to a different partition\folder "d:\Data Files\UserFiles\User Name" so unfortunately I'm left with my initial problem. Unfortanatly I can't hard code in the path becouse diferent users have diferant pathes.

Also when I looked at the environment variables that are available using SET "My Documents" or "Documents" were not listed. - CES

Another issue related to to this is

Shell "explorer.exe /e /select, """"", 1 - Will resolve to Computer(My Computer) which lists all of my hard drives. I'm assuming this is normal behavior.

However

Shell "explorer.exe /e /select, ""xxx ANYTEXT xxx""" - will always resolve to the my documents folder.

- CES

 

[Allen Browne]

Okay: perhaps you could ask in a Windows group if someone knows the
environment variable name for the user's Documents folder.

 

[Douglas J. Steele]

Or check http://www.mvps.org/access/api/api0054.htm at "The Access Web"

 

[David W. Fenton]

Or check http://www.mvps.org/access/api/api0054.htm at "The Access
Web"

Wow. That's great code.

 

[CES]

Or check http://www.mvps.org/access/api/api0054.htm at "The Access Web"

Douglas,
Normally I don't say thank you because it's just a distraction from your day... but that's exactly what I need and more. - CES