HOWTO: Delete a File into the Win95/98 Recycle Bin

ID: Q154005


The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Visual Basic Learning, Professional, and Enterprise Editions for Windows, versions 5.0, 6.0
  • Microsoft Visual Basic Standard, Professional, and Enterprise Editions, 16-bit and 32-bit, for Windows, version 4.0


SUMMARY

This article describes how to use the Visual Basic function called KILL to enable a user to delete a file from disk. Under Windows 95 or Windows 98, there is an additional feature of deleting files into the Recycle bin, giving a user the ability to reclaim deleted files. The KILL function doesn't offer this to the Visual Basic Programmer, but the SHFileOperation Win32 API does. Below is a code sample showing how to use the API in Visual Basic.


MORE INFORMATION

  1. Start a new project in Visual Basic. Form1 is created by default.


  2. Place a Command button on Form1.


  3. Add the following code to the Form1 code window:
    
          Option Explicit
    
          Private Type SHFILEOPSTRUCT
            hwnd As Long
            wFunc As Long
            pFrom As String
            pTo As String
            fFlags As Integer
            fAnyOperationsAborted As Boolean
            hNameMappings As Long
            lpszProgressTitle As String
          End Type
    
          Private Declare Function SHFileOperation Lib "shell32.dll" Alias _
            "SHFileOperationA" (lpFileOp As SHFILEOPSTRUCT) As Long
          Private Declare Function GetTempFileName Lib "kernel32" _
            Alias "GetTempFileNameA" (ByVal lpszPath As String, _
            ByVal lpPrefixString As String, ByVal wUnique As Long, _
            ByVal lpTempFileName As String) As Long
    
          Private Const FO_DELETE = &H3
          Private Const FOF_ALLOWUNDO = &H40
    
          Sub Command1_Click()
            Dim FileOperation As SHFILEOPSTRUCT
            Dim lReturn As Long
            Dim sTempFilename As String * 100
            Dim sSendMeToTheBin As String
            lReturn = GetTempFileName("c:\", "VB_", 0, sTempFilename)
            sSendMeToTheBin = Left(sTempFilename, InStr(sTempFilename, _
               Chr$(0)))
            With FileOperation
               .wFunc = FO_DELETE
               .pFrom = sSendMeToTheBin
               .fFlags = FOF_ALLOWUNDO
            End With
            lReturn = SHFileOperation(FileOperation)
            MsgBox "View your Recycle Bin for files beginning with VB_"
          End Sub
     


  4. Press the F5 key to run the project, and click the Command button. You will be prompted to confirm the deletion of the file. In your Recycle Bin, there will be a file with the prefix "VB_" that is the file created by the GetTempFileName Win32 API call.



REFERENCES

The Win32 SDK Helpfile refers to other SHFileOperation functionality.

Additional query words: kbVBp400 kbVBp500 kbVBp600 kbVBp KBWIN32SDK kbDSupport kbdsd KBAPI

Keywords : kbGrpVB
Version :
Platform : NT WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto


Last Reviewed: January 5, 2000
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