reference a windows shell interface using .net 4.0

Question

I am using the following code to reference a shell dll

            Type t = Type.GetTypeFromProgID("Shell.Application");

            Shell s = (Shell)Activator.CreateInstance(t);


            Console.WriteLine("success");
            Console.ReadLine();

It works fine on my windows 7 development machine.But when I try running the exe on Win 2003 server I get this exception

Unable to cast COM object of type 'System.__ComObject' to interface type 'Shell3
2.Shell'. This operation failed because the QueryInterface call on the COM compo
nent for the interface with IID '{866738B9-6CF2-4DE8-8767-F794EBE74F4E}' failed
due to the following error: No such interface supported (Exception from HRESULT:
0x80004002 (E_NOINTERFACE)).

I took some help from C#: Referencing a windows shell interface but no luck.

I am referencing shell using Microsoft Shell Controls and Automation reference which is Interop.Shell32 dll

If someone can guide it will really helpful.

Answer 1

Ok,this is how I got through the problem incase it helps someone

This is how my new code looks like

Type t = Type.GetTypeFromProgID("Shell.Application");

dynamic shell = Activator.CreateInstance(t);

//This is browse through all the items in the folder
var objFolder = shell.NameSpace(@"\\fileshares\Files\test");

foreach (var item in objFolder.Items())
{
    //This is to get the file's comments for each files in the folderitem

    string file_version = objFolder.GetDetailsOf(item, 14).ToString();

     Console.WriteLine(file_version);

}

This script is by combining help from http://nerdynotes.blogspot.com/2008/06/vbnet-shell32-code-compiled-on-vista.html

and

http://foro.h-sec.org/net/problemas-en-net/

The second link is in spanish,I used google translate to make it up in English

Thanks to all who replied to this question

Answer 2

Have a look at this: http://nerdynotes.blogspot.com/2008/06/vbnet-shell32-code-compiled-on-vista.html I think it's the same issue.

Answer 3

Instead of

Type t = Type.GetTypeFromProgID("Shell.Application");

dynamic shell = Activator.CreateInstance(t);

I used

var shell = (IShellDispatch4) new Shell();

shell.Namespace then works as expected.

Turns out that reference for a shell object defaults to IShellDispatch5, which can't be used in XP or 2003.