How to get and set Windows Explorer view settings

Question

I'm trying to make a script cycle views in Windows Explorer (Windows 7 libraries don't allow remembering view settings per folder).

I found postMessage with the WM_COMMAND message (code 0x111), but can't seem to use it to affect the Explorer view. Nothing happens when I send:

PostMessage,0x111,0x702c,0,,ahk_id %parent%

where %parent% is the handle of the window. Examples on the forums are for Windows XP, which seems to work differently. How to get and set the view setting?

Answer 1

Found a UDF for AutoIt that works for me. It's called automating windows explorer. The code below I wrote based on the forum example, it shows a working example of getting the view and changing it by incrementing the existing state.

Since it is for Windows 7 I skip the thumbnail and thumbstrip views--I think those are for Vista. The content view is not supported by Vista either.

I googled the Windows Constants names and values. I found the correct view sizes by experimenting/looking at my own results.

#include "Includes\AutomatingWindowsExplorer.au3"

;Icon sizes are standard: 16, 48, 96, 196
;Details & list: 16
;Tiles: 48
;Content: 32 (!)
;~ FVM_ICON        = 1,  (48, 96, 196)
;~ FVM_SMALLICON   = 2,  (16)
;~ FVM_LIST        = 3,
;~ FVM_DETAILS     = 4,
;~ FVM_THUMBNAIL   = 5,  (seems to be same as ICON in win7)
;~ FVM_TILE        = 6,
;~ FVM_THUMBSTRIP  = 7,  (seems to be same as ICON in win7)
;~ FVM_CONTENT     = 8,

Opt( "MustDeclareVars", 1 )

Example()

Func Example()
  ; Windows Explorer on Vista, 7, 8
  Local $hExplorer = WinGetHandle( "[REGEXPCLASS:^(Cabinet|Explore)WClass$]" )
  If Not $hExplorer Then
    MsgBox( 0, "Automating Windows Explorer", "Could not find Windows Explorer. Terminating." )
    Return
  EndIf

  ; Get an IShellBrowser interface
  GetIShellBrowser( $hExplorer )
  If Not IsObj( $oIShellBrowser ) Then
    MsgBox( 0, "Automating Windows Explorer", "Could not get an IShellBrowser interface. Terminating." )
    Return
  EndIf

  ; Get other interfaces
  GetShellInterfaces()

  ; Get current icon view
  Local $view = GetIconView() ;returns array [view,size]

  ; Determine the new view
  Local $iView, $iSize, $iNewView, $iNewSize
  $iView = $view[0] ; Icon view
  $iSize = $view[1] ; Icon size
  If $iView = 8 Then
       $iNewView = 1
       $iNewSize = 48
  Else
      $iNewView = $iView + 1
      If $iNewView = 5 Or 7 Then
        $iNewView += 1 ;skip from 5 to 6, or from 7 to 8
      EndIf
  EndIf
  Switch $iNewView
  Case 2 To 4
    $iNewSize = 16
  Case 6
    $iNewSize = 48
  Case 8
    $iNewSize = 32
  EndSwitch

  ;MsgBox( 0, "NewView", $iNewView )
  SetIconView( $iNewView, $iNewSize ) ; Set details view
  Sleep( 1000 )                     ; Wait
  SetIconView( $iView, $iSize )     ; Restore old view
EndFunc