Invoke File Property Dialog and Service Property Dialog

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5.00/5 (4 votes)

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Is there any way to programmatically call and host the default property dialog for a file and/or for a service ? So far I haven't found anything related but I'm pretty sure that there has to be a way; at least using some Win32 API calls.

As answers start to appear i found that display the default file property dialog is doable and pretty easy, but, on the other hand i did not explain the service property dialog part properly.

What i want to be able to programmatically open is the default dialog you get when you double click a service or when you go to properties of a service in the services management console (aka services.msc) .

Posted 18-Jan-11 5:07am

creizlein

Updated 18-Jan-11 5:37am

v3

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Espen Harlinn 18-Jan-11 11:10am

Good question

Nish Nishant 18-Jan-11 11:16am

Agree, got my 5 too.

Nuri Ismail 18-Jan-11 11:27am

Yes, your question is interesting but you should elaborate a little about this service property dialog. Is this the dialog displayed from context menu of each item (service) in "services.msc" management console?

3 solutions

Solution 3

Here is an example opening, among other things, the properties dialog:
C# does Shell, Part 2[^] using ShellExecute. Actually part of a very nice series by Arik Poznanski

Doing this for a service though ... that's the interesting part of this question :)

Regards
Espen Harlinn

Posted 18-Jan-11 5:29am

Espen Harlinn

Updated 18-Jan-11 5:46am

v3

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Nish Nishant · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-18T05:15:00

Solution 1

One easy way to show file/folder properties is via ShellExecute. See:

A newbie's elementary guide to spawning processes[^]

Scroll down a bit to see how this is done.

Not sure what you mean by property dialog for a service though.

Posted 18-Jan-11 5:15am

Nish Nishant

Comments

Nuri Ismail 18-Jan-11 11:22am

Good link to your useful article Nish! +5

Nish Nishant 18-Jan-11 11:25am

Thanks :-)

creizlein 18-Jan-11 11:35am

By Service Property dialog i mean the default dialog you get when you double click a service from the services.msc console, where you can view/change the properties of the service.

Nish Nishant 18-Jan-11 11:39am

I believe that's a child dialog of the services control panel applet. Not sure if it's exposed via a command line call to the applet. But probably worth researching.

Nuri Ismail · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-18T05:21:00

Solution 2

In addition to Nish's answer here[^] is a C# example of using ShellExecute to display a file property dialog. :)

Posted 18-Jan-11 5:21am

Nuri Ismail

Updated 18-Jan-11 5:28am

v2

Comments

Nish Nishant 18-Jan-11 11:25am

Voted 5, for the P/Invoke stuff. Forgot that the OP wanted a C# solution.

Nuri Ismail 18-Jan-11 11:27am

Thank you very much. :)