Select folder dialog WPF

If you don't want to use Windows Forms nor edit manifest files, I came up with a very simple hack using WPF's SaveAs dialog for actually selecting a directory.

No using directive needed, you may simply copy-paste the code below !

It should still be very user-friendly and most people will never notice.

The idea comes from the fact that we can change the title of that dialog, hide files, and work around the resulting filename quite easily.

It is a big hack for sure, but maybe it will do the job just fine for your usage...

In this example I have a textbox object to contain the resulting path, but you may remove the related lines and use a return value if you wish...

// Create a "Save As" dialog for selecting a directory (HACK)
var dialog = new Microsoft.Win32.SaveFileDialog();
dialog.InitialDirectory = textbox.Text; // Use current value for initial dir
dialog.Title = "Select a Directory"; // instead of default "Save As"
dialog.Filter = "Directory|*.this.directory"; // Prevents displaying files
dialog.FileName = "select"; // Filename will then be "select.this.directory"
if (dialog.ShowDialog() == true) {
    string path = dialog.FileName;
    // Remove fake filename from resulting path
    path = path.Replace("\\select.this.directory", "");
    path = path.Replace(".this.directory", "");
    // If user has changed the filename, create the new directory
    if (!System.IO.Directory.Exists(path)) {
        System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory(path);
    }
    // Our final value is in path
    textbox.Text = path;
}

The only issues with this hack are :

• Acknowledge button still says "Save" instead of something like "Select directory", but in a case like mines I "Save" the directory selection so it still works...
• Input field still says "File name" instead of "Directory name", but we can say that a directory is a type of file...
• There is still a "Save as type" dropdown, but its value says "Directory (*.this.directory)", and the user cannot change it for something else, works for me...

Most people won't notice these, although I would definitely prefer using an official WPF way if microsoft would get their heads out of their asses, but until they do, that's my temporary fix.

The FolderBrowserDialog class from System.Windows.Forms is the recommended way to display a dialog that allows a user to select a folder.

Until recently, the appearance and behaviour of this dialog was not in keeping with the other filesystem dialogs, which is one of the reasons why people were reluctant to use it.

The good news is that FolderBrowserDialog was "modernized" in NET Core 3.0, so is now a viable option for those writing either Windows Forms or WPF apps targeting that version or later.

In .NET Core 3.0, Windows Forms users [sic] a newer COM-based control that was introduced in Windows Vista:

To reference System.Windows.Forms in a NET Core WPF app, it is necessary to edit the project file and add the following line:

<UseWindowsForms>true</UseWindowsForms>

This can be placed directly after the existing <UseWPF> element.

Then it's just a case of using the dialog:

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;

...

using var dialog = new FolderBrowserDialog
{
    Description = "Time to select a folder",
    UseDescriptionForTitle = true,
    SelectedPath = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.DesktopDirectory)
        + Path.DirectorySeparatorChar,
    ShowNewFolderButton = true
};

if (dialog.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
{
    ...
}

FolderBrowserDialog has a RootFolder property that supposedly "sets the root folder where the browsing starts from" but whatever I set this to it didn't make any difference; SelectedPath seemed to be the better property to use for this purpose, however the trailing backslash is required.

Also, the ShowNewFolderButton property seems to be ignored as well, the button is always shown regardless.

The Ookii Dialogs for WPF has a VistaFolderBrowserDialog class that provides a complete implementation of a folder browser dialog for WPF.

https://github.com/augustoproiete/ookii-dialogs-wpf

There's also a version that works with Windows Forms.

Just to say one thing, WindowsAPICodePack can not open CommonOpenFileDialog on Windows 7 6.1.7600.

A comment on the original question from C. Augusto Proiete suggested Ookii dialogs (https://github.com/ookii-dialogs/ookii-dialogs-wpf). That's what I ended up using in my situation. Here's how I used it in my app.

var dialog = new VistaFolderBrowserDialog()
{
    Description = "Select Folder",
    RootFolder = Environment.SpecialFolder.Desktop,
    ShowNewFolderButton = true,
    UseDescriptionForTitle = true
};

var result = dialog.ShowDialog();

if (result.HasValue && result.Value)
{
    _mySelectedFolder = dialog.SelectedPath;
}