Getting file type

Question

Hi!

   I want to retrieve de filetype of a file as a string in my app. This is what i use:

Dim infofile As System.IO.FileInfo
infofile = FileIO.FileSystem.GetFileInfo("c:\tmp.txt")

this way i can only get the extension .txt

How to retrieve full extension description like "text document" or "Winzip archive" instead of ".zip" and so on...

thank

Answer 1

You can do this by using My.Computer.Registry to look this up in the Registry.

Dim infofile As System.IO.FileInfo
infofile = FileIO.FileSystem.GetFileInfo("c:\testzinio.txt")
Dim fileExt As String = infofile.Extension

Dim fileType As String
fileType = My.Computer.Registry.GetValue("HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\" & fileExt, "", "")

Dim fileDesc As String
fileDesc = My.Computer.Registry.GetValue("HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\" & fileType, "", "")

Robert

Answer 2

Thank for the help Robert.

Answer 3

Robert Green wrote:

You can do this by using My.Computer.Registry to look this up in the Registry. Dim infofile As System.IO.FileInfo infofile = FileIO.FileSystem.GetFileInfo("c:\testzinio.txt") Dim fileExt As String = infofile.Extension Dim fileType As String fileType = My.Computer.Registry.GetValue("HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\" & fileExt, "", "") Dim fileDesc As String fileDesc = My.Computer.Registry.GetValue("HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\" & fileType, "", "") Robert

Could you inform us of what Namespace the My.Computer.Registry is in? I'm trying to do the same thing but using C# not VB.NET
[Retract]-- I just discovered this is only available in the 2005 version using 2.0 Framework. No help to me, but thanks for the information anyways!
Thanks
-RazrV3

Answer 4

You can still access the Registry in .NET Framework 1.0/1.1, by importing the Microsoft.Win32 namespace.

Answer 5

You can use the following code in v1.1

string strFileExt = ".txt"; RegistryKey objHKU = Registry.ClassesRoot; objHKU = objHKU.OpenSubKey(strFileExt); object objKey = objHKU(""); //Gets the value in (default) string strValue = objKey + "";

Regards,
Vikram