Sometimes, you need to open Windows Explorer to a specific folder from your C# application. This can be useful for improving user experience, providing quick access to files, or integrating with other tools. In this post, I'll show you how to achieve this using the Windows Shell API via the Microsoft.Windows.CsWin32 package, and discuss an alternative using Meziantou.Framework.FullPath. To use Windows… [read more]

When working with files and folders in .NET applications on Windows, you might need to move items to the Recycle Bin instead of permanently deleting them (File.Delete, Directory.Delete). This provides users with the ability to recover accidentally deleted items. Here's how you can accomplish this using the Windows Shell API: static void MoveToRecycleBin(string path) { var shellType =… [read more]

127.0.0.1 is a reserved IP address that refers to the local machine. It is commonly used for testing and development purposes, allowing applications to communicate with themselves without needing an external network connection. But, the full range of loopback addresses is from 127.0.0.0 to 127.255.255.255 (127.0.0.0/8), which means you can use other addresses in this range for similar purposes. The… [read more]

Git worktree is a powerful feature that allows you to have multiple working directories associated with a single repository. Instead of switching branches and potentially losing uncommitted work, you can check out different branches in separate directories simultaneously without recloning the repository. Git worktree creates additional working trees linked to the same repository. Each worktree can have a… [read more]

Windows has a list of well-known folders such as Documents, Pictures, Music, etc. You can access most of these folders using the Environment.GetFolderPath method in C#. Here's an example: Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments); However, this list is limited to the folders defined in the Environment.SpecialFolder enumeration. If you need to access other well-known folders, such as… [read more]

Before reading: If you work in a small company with only one or two projects, this post may not be relevant for you. I've worked for companies of various sizes, from small startups to organizations with thousands of developers. While small companies typically have one or two projects, large companies can have hundreds or thousands of repositories. As organizations grow, keeping all projects aligned and… [read more]

When a GitHub Actions job finishes, the runner terminates any orphaned processes it started. It identifies these processes by checking for the RUNNER_TRACKING_ID environment variable. Any process with this variable set is treated as a child of the runner and will be stopped. On GitHub-hosted runners, this is usually not a concern since the entire virtual machine is discarded after the job ends. To allow a… [read more]

If you need to reinstall Windows, having your original product key is essential for activation. If you can't locate your product key, you can retrieve your current product key using PowerShell. This method is helpful if you have a digital license or purchased Windows online and didn't save the key. Run the following PowerShell command to extract your product key from the Windows Management Instrumentation… [read more]

When developing a Roslyn Source Generator, it's important to verify that it works as intended. There are several approaches to testing: you can compare the generated code output (for example, with snapshot testing), or you can go further and ensure that the generated code behaves correctly when executed. In this post, I'll show example for both ways. Note that I strongly recommend to use the second… [read more]

When running a WASM application in Microsoft Edge, you may observe significantly slower performance compared to other browsers (sometimes 5 to 10 times slower). Although Edge uses the same engine as Google Chrome and similar browsers, it introduces a security feature called enhanced security that can impact JS and WASM execution speed. This feature impacts WASM execution by using an interpreter instead of… [read more]