CODEWITHSUNDEEP
delphi
Alister
Alister

Reputation: 53

Delphi RAD Studio 10.2, unable to browse windows system folder using FileOpenDialog

I need to be able to enumerate the folders present under C:\Windows\system32\dns on a Windows server 2016 instance running Windows DNS server.

Having tried FindFirst()/FindNext() and getting no results, I built a quick VCL Forms App to understand what was happening. I have a TButton and a TEdit, and the button's OnClick is below:

procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
  FDir := 'C:\Windows\System32\';

  with TFileOpenDialog.Create(nil) do
    try
      Title := 'Select Directory';
      Options := [fdoPickFolders, fdoPathMustExist, fdoForceFileSystem];
      OkButtonLabel := 'Select';
      DefaultFolder := FDir;
      FileName := FDir;
      if Execute then
        Edit1.Text := Filename;
    finally
      Free;
    end;
end;

When I run this - either as Administrator, or normally, on the server - and try to browse to the folder C:\Windows\system32\dns\ in the FileOpenDialog, I get an error:

Windows can't find 'C:\Windows\system32\dns'. Check the spelling and try again.

However, I know the folder exists, and I can browse it using Windows Explorer on the server, so there must be an issue with the Delphi code, or the permissions the App is running under.

Please, can anyone suggest what I need to do to fix this?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 221

Answers (1)

Alister
Alister

Reputation: 53

Thanks to @SertacAkyuz for reminding me about file system redirection - trying to access %Windir%\system32 from a 32bit program will be redirected to %Windir%\SysWow64 which doesn't contain the dns folder.

You can use the virtual alias %Windir%\Sysnative to gain access to the actual system32 folder from a 32bit application, and that works for the above case. so browsing to %Windir%\sysnative\dns allows me to enumerate the folders correctly.

Upvotes: 4

Related Questions