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

• 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          : 
Version           : 
Platform          : NT WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbhowto 

Last Reviewed: May 25, 1999