I'm trying to find out how to read/write to the extended file properties in C# e.g. Comment, Bit Rate, Date Accessed, Category etc that you can see in Windows explorer. Any ideas how to do this? EDIT: I'll mainly be reading/writing to video files (AVI/DIVX/...)
This question is related to
c#
extended-properties
Thank you guys for this thread! It helped me when I wanted to figure out an exe's file version. However, I needed to figure out the last bit myself of what is called Extended Properties.
If you open properties of an exe (or dll) file in Windows Explorer, you get a Version tab, and a view of Extended Properties of that file. I wanted to access one of those values.
The solution to this is the property indexer FolderItem.ExtendedProperty and if you drop all spaces in the property's name, you'll get the value. E.g. File Version goes FileVersion, and there you have it.
Hope this helps anyone else, just thought I'd add this info to this thread. Cheers!
Jerker's answer is little simpler. Here's sample code which works from MS:
var folder = new Shell().NameSpace(folderPath);
foreach (FolderItem2 item in folder.Items())
{
var company = item.ExtendedProperty("Company");
var author = item.ExtendedProperty("Author");
// Etc.
}
For those who can't reference shell32 statically, you can invoke it dynamically like this:
var shellAppType = Type.GetTypeFromProgID("Shell.Application");
dynamic shellApp = Activator.CreateInstance(shellAppType);
var folder = shellApp.NameSpace(folderPath);
foreach (var item in folder.Items())
{
var company = item.ExtendedProperty("Company");
var author = item.ExtendedProperty("Author");
// Etc.
}
Thank you guys for this thread! It helped me when I wanted to figure out an exe's file version. However, I needed to figure out the last bit myself of what is called Extended Properties.
If you open properties of an exe (or dll) file in Windows Explorer, you get a Version tab, and a view of Extended Properties of that file. I wanted to access one of those values.
The solution to this is the property indexer FolderItem.ExtendedProperty and if you drop all spaces in the property's name, you'll get the value. E.g. File Version goes FileVersion, and there you have it.
Hope this helps anyone else, just thought I'd add this info to this thread. Cheers!
Here is a solution for reading - not writing - the extended properties based on what I found on this page and at help with shell32 objects.
To be clear this is a hack. It looks like this code will still run on Windows 10 but will hit on some empty properties. Previous version of Windows should use:
var i = 0;
while (true)
{
...
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(header)) break;
...
i++;
On Windows 10 we assume that there are about 320 properties to read and simply skip the empty entries:
private Dictionary<string, string> GetExtendedProperties(string filePath)
{
var directory = Path.GetDirectoryName(filePath);
var shell = new Shell32.Shell();
var shellFolder = shell.NameSpace(directory);
var fileName = Path.GetFileName(filePath);
var folderitem = shellFolder.ParseName(fileName);
var dictionary = new Dictionary<string, string>();
var i = -1;
while (++i < 320)
{
var header = shellFolder.GetDetailsOf(null, i);
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(header)) continue;
var value = shellFolder.GetDetailsOf(folderitem, i);
if (!dictionary.ContainsKey(header)) dictionary.Add(header, value);
Console.WriteLine(header +": " + value);
}
Marshal.ReleaseComObject(shell);
Marshal.ReleaseComObject(shellFolder);
return dictionary;
}
As mentioned you need to reference the Com assembly Interop.Shell32.
If you get an STA related exception, you will find the solution here:
Exception when using Shell32 to get File extended properties
I have no idea what those properties names would be like on a foreign system and couldn't find information about which localizable constants to use in order to access the dictionary. I also found that not all the properties from the Properties dialog were present in the dictionary returned.
BTW this is terribly slow and - at least on Windows 10 - parsing dates in the string retrieved would be a challenge so using this seems to be a bad idea to start with.
On Windows 10 you should definitely use the Windows.Storage library which contains the SystemPhotoProperties, SystemMusicProperties etc. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/files/quickstart-getting-file-properties
And finally, I posted a much better solution that uses WindowsAPICodePack there
There's a CodeProject article for an ID3 reader. And a thread at kixtart.org that has more information for other properties. Basically, you need to call the GetDetailsOf() method on the folder shell object for shell32.dll.
I'm not sure what types of files you are trying to write the properties for but taglib-sharp is an excellent open source tagging library that wraps up all this functionality nicely. It has a lot of built in support for most of the popular media file types but also allows you to do more advanced tagging with pretty much any file.
EDIT: I've updated the link to taglib sharp. The old link no longer worked.
EDIT: Updated the link once again per kzu's comment.
Use:
string propertyValue = GetExtendedFileProperty("c:\\temp\\FileNameYouWant.ext","PropertyYouWant");
Will work on Windows versions like Windows server 2008 where you will get the error "Unable to cast COM object of type 'System.__ComObject' to interface type 'Shell32.Shell'" if just trying to create the Shell32 Object normally.
public static string GetExtendedFileProperty(string filePath, string propertyName)
{
string value = string.Empty;
string baseFolder = Path.GetDirectoryName(filePath);
string fileName = Path.GetFileName(filePath);
//Method to load and execute the Shell object for Windows server 8 environment otherwise you get "Unable to cast COM object of type 'System.__ComObject' to interface type 'Shell32.Shell'"
Type shellAppType = Type.GetTypeFromProgID("Shell.Application");
Object shell = Activator.CreateInstance(shellAppType);
Shell32.Folder shellFolder = (Shell32.Folder)shellAppType.InvokeMember("NameSpace", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, null, shell, new object[] { baseFolder });
//Parsename will find the specific file I'm looking for in the Shell32.Folder object
Shell32.FolderItem folderitem = shellFolder.ParseName(fileName);
if (folderitem != null)
{
for (int i = 0; i < short.MaxValue; i++)
{
//Get the property name for property index i
string property = shellFolder.GetDetailsOf(null, i);
//Will be empty when all possible properties has been looped through, break out of loop
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(property)) break;
//Skip to next property if this is not the specified property
if (property != propertyName) continue;
//Read value of property
value = shellFolder.GetDetailsOf(folderitem, i);
}
}
//returns string.Empty if no value was found for the specified property
return value;
}
There's a CodeProject article for an ID3 reader. And a thread at kixtart.org that has more information for other properties. Basically, you need to call the GetDetailsOf() method on the folder shell object for shell32.dll.
Use:
string propertyValue = GetExtendedFileProperty("c:\\temp\\FileNameYouWant.ext","PropertyYouWant");
Will work on Windows versions like Windows server 2008 where you will get the error "Unable to cast COM object of type 'System.__ComObject' to interface type 'Shell32.Shell'" if just trying to create the Shell32 Object normally.
public static string GetExtendedFileProperty(string filePath, string propertyName)
{
string value = string.Empty;
string baseFolder = Path.GetDirectoryName(filePath);
string fileName = Path.GetFileName(filePath);
//Method to load and execute the Shell object for Windows server 8 environment otherwise you get "Unable to cast COM object of type 'System.__ComObject' to interface type 'Shell32.Shell'"
Type shellAppType = Type.GetTypeFromProgID("Shell.Application");
Object shell = Activator.CreateInstance(shellAppType);
Shell32.Folder shellFolder = (Shell32.Folder)shellAppType.InvokeMember("NameSpace", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, null, shell, new object[] { baseFolder });
//Parsename will find the specific file I'm looking for in the Shell32.Folder object
Shell32.FolderItem folderitem = shellFolder.ParseName(fileName);
if (folderitem != null)
{
for (int i = 0; i < short.MaxValue; i++)
{
//Get the property name for property index i
string property = shellFolder.GetDetailsOf(null, i);
//Will be empty when all possible properties has been looped through, break out of loop
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(property)) break;
//Skip to next property if this is not the specified property
if (property != propertyName) continue;
//Read value of property
value = shellFolder.GetDetailsOf(folderitem, i);
}
}
//returns string.Empty if no value was found for the specified property
return value;
}
I'm not sure what types of files you are trying to write the properties for but taglib-sharp is an excellent open source tagging library that wraps up all this functionality nicely. It has a lot of built in support for most of the popular media file types but also allows you to do more advanced tagging with pretty much any file.
EDIT: I've updated the link to taglib sharp. The old link no longer worked.
EDIT: Updated the link once again per kzu's comment.
This sample in VB.NET reads all extended properties:
Sub Main()
Dim arrHeaders(35)
Dim shell As New Shell32.Shell
Dim objFolder As Shell32.Folder
objFolder = shell.NameSpace("C:\tmp")
For i = 0 To 34
arrHeaders(i) = objFolder.GetDetailsOf(objFolder.Items, i)
Next
For Each strFileName In objfolder.Items
For i = 0 To 34
Console.WriteLine(i & vbTab & arrHeaders(i) & ": " & objfolder.GetDetailsOf(strFileName, i))
Next
Next
End Sub
You have to add a reference to Microsoft Shell Controls and Automation from the COM tab of the References dialog.
There's a CodeProject article for an ID3 reader. And a thread at kixtart.org that has more information for other properties. Basically, you need to call the GetDetailsOf() method on the folder shell object for shell32.dll.
Jerker's answer is little simpler. Here's sample code which works from MS:
var folder = new Shell().NameSpace(folderPath);
foreach (FolderItem2 item in folder.Items())
{
var company = item.ExtendedProperty("Company");
var author = item.ExtendedProperty("Author");
// Etc.
}
For those who can't reference shell32 statically, you can invoke it dynamically like this:
var shellAppType = Type.GetTypeFromProgID("Shell.Application");
dynamic shellApp = Activator.CreateInstance(shellAppType);
var folder = shellApp.NameSpace(folderPath);
foreach (var item in folder.Items())
{
var company = item.ExtendedProperty("Company");
var author = item.ExtendedProperty("Author");
// Etc.
}
This sample in VB.NET reads all extended properties:
Sub Main()
Dim arrHeaders(35)
Dim shell As New Shell32.Shell
Dim objFolder As Shell32.Folder
objFolder = shell.NameSpace("C:\tmp")
For i = 0 To 34
arrHeaders(i) = objFolder.GetDetailsOf(objFolder.Items, i)
Next
For Each strFileName In objfolder.Items
For i = 0 To 34
Console.WriteLine(i & vbTab & arrHeaders(i) & ": " & objfolder.GetDetailsOf(strFileName, i))
Next
Next
End Sub
You have to add a reference to Microsoft Shell Controls and Automation from the COM tab of the References dialog.
I'm not sure what types of files you are trying to write the properties for but taglib-sharp is an excellent open source tagging library that wraps up all this functionality nicely. It has a lot of built in support for most of the popular media file types but also allows you to do more advanced tagging with pretty much any file.
EDIT: I've updated the link to taglib sharp. The old link no longer worked.
EDIT: Updated the link once again per kzu's comment.
Add following NuGet packages to your project:
Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack-Shell by MicrosoftMicrosoft.WindowsAPICodePack-Core by Microsoftusing Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack.Shell;
using Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack.Shell.PropertySystem;
string filePath = @"C:\temp\example.docx";
var file = ShellFile.FromFilePath(filePath);
// Read and Write:
string[] oldAuthors = file.Properties.System.Author.Value;
string oldTitle = file.Properties.System.Title.Value;
file.Properties.System.Author.Value = new string[] { "Author #1", "Author #2" };
file.Properties.System.Title.Value = "Example Title";
// Alternate way to Write:
ShellPropertyWriter propertyWriter = file.Properties.GetPropertyWriter();
propertyWriter.WriteProperty(SystemProperties.System.Author, new string[] { "Author" });
propertyWriter.Close();
Important:
The file must be a valid one, created by the specific assigned software. Every file type has specific extended file properties and not all of them are writable.
If you right-click a file on desktop and cannot edit a property, you wont be able to edit it in code too.
Example:
Author or Title property.So just make sure to use some try catch
Further Topic: MSDN: Implementing Property Handlers
This sample in VB.NET reads all extended properties:
Sub Main()
Dim arrHeaders(35)
Dim shell As New Shell32.Shell
Dim objFolder As Shell32.Folder
objFolder = shell.NameSpace("C:\tmp")
For i = 0 To 34
arrHeaders(i) = objFolder.GetDetailsOf(objFolder.Items, i)
Next
For Each strFileName In objfolder.Items
For i = 0 To 34
Console.WriteLine(i & vbTab & arrHeaders(i) & ": " & objfolder.GetDetailsOf(strFileName, i))
Next
Next
End Sub
You have to add a reference to Microsoft Shell Controls and Automation from the COM tab of the References dialog.
GetDetailsOf() Method - Retrieves details about an item in a folder. For example, its size, type, or the time of its last modification. File Properties may vary based on the Windows-OS version.
List<string> arrHeaders = new List<string>();
Shell shell = new ShellClass();
Folder rFolder = shell.NameSpace(_rootPath);
FolderItem rFiles = rFolder.ParseName(filename);
for (int i = 0; i < short.MaxValue; i++)
{
string value = rFolder.GetDetailsOf(rFiles, i).Trim();
arrHeaders.Add(value);
}
This sample in VB.NET reads all extended properties:
Sub Main()
Dim arrHeaders(35)
Dim shell As New Shell32.Shell
Dim objFolder As Shell32.Folder
objFolder = shell.NameSpace("C:\tmp")
For i = 0 To 34
arrHeaders(i) = objFolder.GetDetailsOf(objFolder.Items, i)
Next
For Each strFileName In objfolder.Items
For i = 0 To 34
Console.WriteLine(i & vbTab & arrHeaders(i) & ": " & objfolder.GetDetailsOf(strFileName, i))
Next
Next
End Sub
You have to add a reference to Microsoft Shell Controls and Automation from the COM tab of the References dialog.
There's a CodeProject article for an ID3 reader. And a thread at kixtart.org that has more information for other properties. Basically, you need to call the GetDetailsOf() method on the folder shell object for shell32.dll.
Add following NuGet packages to your project:
Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack-Shell by MicrosoftMicrosoft.WindowsAPICodePack-Core by Microsoftusing Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack.Shell;
using Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack.Shell.PropertySystem;
string filePath = @"C:\temp\example.docx";
var file = ShellFile.FromFilePath(filePath);
// Read and Write:
string[] oldAuthors = file.Properties.System.Author.Value;
string oldTitle = file.Properties.System.Title.Value;
file.Properties.System.Author.Value = new string[] { "Author #1", "Author #2" };
file.Properties.System.Title.Value = "Example Title";
// Alternate way to Write:
ShellPropertyWriter propertyWriter = file.Properties.GetPropertyWriter();
propertyWriter.WriteProperty(SystemProperties.System.Author, new string[] { "Author" });
propertyWriter.Close();
Important:
The file must be a valid one, created by the specific assigned software. Every file type has specific extended file properties and not all of them are writable.
If you right-click a file on desktop and cannot edit a property, you wont be able to edit it in code too.
Example:
Author or Title property.So just make sure to use some try catch
Further Topic: MSDN: Implementing Property Handlers
Here is a solution for reading - not writing - the extended properties based on what I found on this page and at help with shell32 objects.
To be clear this is a hack. It looks like this code will still run on Windows 10 but will hit on some empty properties. Previous version of Windows should use:
var i = 0;
while (true)
{
...
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(header)) break;
...
i++;
On Windows 10 we assume that there are about 320 properties to read and simply skip the empty entries:
private Dictionary<string, string> GetExtendedProperties(string filePath)
{
var directory = Path.GetDirectoryName(filePath);
var shell = new Shell32.Shell();
var shellFolder = shell.NameSpace(directory);
var fileName = Path.GetFileName(filePath);
var folderitem = shellFolder.ParseName(fileName);
var dictionary = new Dictionary<string, string>();
var i = -1;
while (++i < 320)
{
var header = shellFolder.GetDetailsOf(null, i);
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(header)) continue;
var value = shellFolder.GetDetailsOf(folderitem, i);
if (!dictionary.ContainsKey(header)) dictionary.Add(header, value);
Console.WriteLine(header +": " + value);
}
Marshal.ReleaseComObject(shell);
Marshal.ReleaseComObject(shellFolder);
return dictionary;
}
As mentioned you need to reference the Com assembly Interop.Shell32.
If you get an STA related exception, you will find the solution here:
Exception when using Shell32 to get File extended properties
I have no idea what those properties names would be like on a foreign system and couldn't find information about which localizable constants to use in order to access the dictionary. I also found that not all the properties from the Properties dialog were present in the dictionary returned.
BTW this is terribly slow and - at least on Windows 10 - parsing dates in the string retrieved would be a challenge so using this seems to be a bad idea to start with.
On Windows 10 you should definitely use the Windows.Storage library which contains the SystemPhotoProperties, SystemMusicProperties etc. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/files/quickstart-getting-file-properties
And finally, I posted a much better solution that uses WindowsAPICodePack there
GetDetailsOf() Method - Retrieves details about an item in a folder. For example, its size, type, or the time of its last modification. File Properties may vary based on the Windows-OS version.
List<string> arrHeaders = new List<string>();
Shell shell = new ShellClass();
Folder rFolder = shell.NameSpace(_rootPath);
FolderItem rFiles = rFolder.ParseName(filename);
for (int i = 0; i < short.MaxValue; i++)
{
string value = rFolder.GetDetailsOf(rFiles, i).Trim();
arrHeaders.Add(value);
}
Source: Stackoverflow.com