File / folder chooser dialog from a Windows batch script

Question

Typically, asking the user to supply a file name to a batch script is a messy affair, requiring no misspellings, quotes around paths with spaces, and so forth. Unfortunatel

Answer 1

File Browser

Update 2016.3.20:

Since PowerShell is a native component of pretty much all modern Windows installations nowadays, I'm declaring the C# fallback as no longer necessary. If you still need it for Vista or XP compatibility, I moved it to a new answer. Starting with this edit, I'm rewriting the script as a Batch + PowerShell hybrid and incorporating the ability to perform multi-select. It's profoundly easier to read and to tweak as needed.

<# : chooser.bat
:: launches a File... Open sort of file chooser and outputs choice(s) to the console
:: https://stackoverflow.com/a/15885133/1683264

@echo off
setlocal

for /f "delims=" %%I in ('powershell -noprofile "iex (${%~f0} | out-string)"') do (
    echo You chose %%~I
)
goto :EOF

: end Batch portion / begin PowerShell hybrid chimera #>

Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms
$f = new-object Windows.Forms.OpenFileDialog
$f.InitialDirectory = pwd
$f.Filter = "Text Files (*.txt)|*.txt|All Files (*.*)|*.*"
$f.ShowHelp = $true
$f.Multiselect = $true
[void]$f.ShowDialog()
if ($f.Multiselect) { $f.FileNames } else { $f.FileName }

This results in a file chooser dialog.

The result of a selection outputs You chose C:\Users\me\Desktop\tmp.txt to the console. If you want to force single file selection, just change the $f.Multiselect property to $false.

(PowerShell command mercilessly leeched from the Just Tinkering Blog.) See the OpenFileDialog Class documentation for other properties you can set, such as Title and InitialDirectory.

---

Folder Browser

Update 2015.08.10:

Since there is already a COM method for invoking a folder chooser, it's pretty easy to build a PowerShell one-liner that can open the folder chooser and output the path.

:: fchooser.bat
:: launches a folder chooser and outputs choice to the console
:: https://stackoverflow.com/a/15885133/1683264

@echo off
setlocal

set "psCommand="(new-object -COM 'Shell.Application')^
.BrowseForFolder(0,'Please choose a folder.',0,0).self.path""

for /f "usebackq delims=" %%I in (`powershell %psCommand%`) do set "folder=%%I"

setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
echo You chose !folder!
endlocal

In the BrowseForFolder() method, the fourth argument specifies the root of the hierarchy. See ShellSpecialFolderConstants for a list of valid values.

This results in a folder chooser dialog.

The result of a selection outputs You chose C:\Users\me\Desktop to the console.

See the FolderBrowserDialog class documentation for other properties you can set, such as RootFolder. My original .NET System.Windows.Forms PowerShell and C# solutions can be found in revision 4 of this answer if needed, but this COM method is much easier to read and maintain.