Opening Windows Explorer with the ShellExecute API in Delphi | Practical Code Examples

Opening Windows Explorer with the ShellExecute API in Delphi

To launch applications such as Notepad, you can use the ShellExecute API:
ShellExecute(Handle, 'open', 'notepad.exe', nil, nil, SW_SHOW);
The following example opens the C:\Windows directory in Windows Explorer.

uses ShellAPI;

procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
  ShellExecute(Handle, 'open', 'explorer.exe', 'c:\Windows', nil, SW_SHOW);
end;

The next example opens Windows Explorer with the C:\Windows directory, and highlights the file win.ini.

uses ShellAPI;

procedure TForm1.Button2Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
  ShellExecute(Handle, 'open', 'explorer.exe',
    '/select,c:\Windows\win.ini',
    nil, SW_SHOW);
end;

The following example opens Windows Explorer with the C:\Windows directory, and highlights the system32 folder.

uses ShellAPI;

procedure TForm1.Button2Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
  ShellExecute(Handle, 'open', 'explorer.exe',
    '/select,c:\Windows\system32',
    nil, SW_SHOW);
end;