Check if a User is renaming a file in File Explorer at the Moment C#

Question

I'm programming a C# program which listens for Space pressed in the File Explorer. When space is pressed I create a WPF window which shows the selected File in a WPF Window.

The only problem is, that this file Preview is also called when someone is editing the filename and presses space for a whitespace in the filename.

Is there a way to detect if a user is renaming a file at the moment?

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Additional Information:

I know that i could listen for F2, but there's also the way to start renaming a file by clicking two times with the left mouse button or by right clicking the file and selecting rename. So this would be no good solution.

Technical Information (if needed):

I use GetForegroundWindow to check if the Window in the foreground is a explorer window. Then i use Hooks to listen for the pressed Keys in the explorer process in foreground.

To get the selected Item i use SHDocVw and Shell32

                    Shell32.FolderItems selectedItems = ((Shell32.IShellFolderViewDual2) window.Document).SelectedItems();

Answer 1

To detect file rename, check for FileSystemWatcher.Changed Event. Here is the example code taken from MSDN. MSDN FileSystemWatcher Example

I have slightly modified code. I have verified the code. It notifies as and when file is renamed.

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Security.Permissions;

namespace FileWatcher
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Run();
        }

        [PermissionSet(SecurityAction.Demand, Name = "FullTrust")]
        public static void Run()
        {
            // Create a new FileSystemWatcher and set its properties.
            FileSystemWatcher watcher = new FileSystemWatcher();

            watcher.Path = @"c:\temp"; //Specify the directory name where file resides

            /* Watch for changes in LastAccess and LastWrite times, and
               the renaming of files or directories. */

            watcher.NotifyFilter = NotifyFilters.LastAccess | NotifyFilters.LastWrite
               | NotifyFilters.FileName | NotifyFilters.DirectoryName;

            // Only watch text files.
            watcher.Filter = "*.txt";

            // Add event handlers.
            watcher.Changed += new FileSystemEventHandler(OnChanged);
            watcher.Created += new FileSystemEventHandler(OnChanged);
            watcher.Deleted += new FileSystemEventHandler(OnChanged);
            watcher.Renamed += new RenamedEventHandler(OnRenamed);

            // Begin watching.
            watcher.EnableRaisingEvents = true;

            // Wait for the user to quit the program.
            Console.WriteLine("Press \'q\' to quit the sample.");
            while (Console.Read() != 'q') ;
        }

        // Define the event handlers. 
        private static void OnChanged(object source, FileSystemEventArgs e)
        {
            // Specify what is done when a file is changed, created, or deleted.
            Console.WriteLine("File: " + e.FullPath + " " + e.ChangeType);
        }

        private static void OnRenamed(object source, RenamedEventArgs e)
        {
            // Specify what is done when a file is renamed.
            Console.WriteLine("File: {0} renamed to {1}", e.OldFullPath, e.FullPath);
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

Your file navigation enhancement should not risk interfering with the behaviour currently present in Windows Explorer.

Hence:

Ctrl + Space

Using a new command such as Ctrl + Space will not get triggered during a file-rename operation plus your application will work using the standard baked in Windows OS user-commands (with a little spice) .

• Ctrl + Space is an IntelliSense command for us dev's, so its a natural command for people to use for "more info"/"help me out".

_{I hope you have a very special File Preview. In the last 2 decades there have been a lot of cases where it has been a PITA not a pleasure :(
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/983097
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2257542}