Get list of selected files from Windows Desktop

It is easy for desktop since it is still a listview, just find the correct handle. list view is a child of the desktop handle.

Desktop+- Progman (for backward compatibility)   +- Shell Def View      +- SysListView32 (even under 64 bit)

then you can do all listview operations on the list view. but other explorer windows does not contain a list view. Instead they use window with class DirectUIHWND which is a mystery to many. I've just found a post that describes a way to the unravel that mystery.

http://smartbear.com/forums?forumid=81&threadid=68427#68428

I hope it helps.

I think you should communicate between processes.Following topics will help.

This is an example of retrieving icons from desktop. List of desktop items and their current positions are fetched.http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/d7df8a4d-fc0f-4b62-80c9-7768756456e6/how-can-i-get-desktops-icons-information-?forum=winforms

Here the parameter LVM_GETITEMSTATE can be used within the sample code from the link above.http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb761053(v=vs.85).aspx

Good luck..

    using System.Runtime.InteropServices;    public class ShellItems    {        [StructLayoutAttribute(LayoutKind.Sequential)]        private struct LVITEM        {            public uint mask;            public int iItem;            public int iSubItem;            public uint state;            public uint stateMask;            public IntPtr pszText;            public int cchTextMax;            public int iImage;            public IntPtr lParam;        }        const int LVM_FIRST = 0x1000;        const int LVM_GETSELECTEDCOUNT = 4146;        const int LVM_GETNEXTITEM = LVM_FIRST + 12;        const int LVNI_SELECTED = 2;        const int LVM_GETITEMCOUNT = LVM_FIRST + 4;        const int LVM_GETITEM = LVM_FIRST + 75;        const int LVIF_TEXT = 0x0001;        [DllImport("user32.dll", EntryPoint = "GetShellWindow")]        public static extern System.IntPtr GetShellWindow();        [DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]        public static extern IntPtr FindWindowEx(IntPtr parentHandle, IntPtr childAfter, string className, string windowTitle);        [DllImport("user32.dll", EntryPoint = "SendMessage", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]        public static extern int SendMessagePtr(IntPtr hWnd, int wMsg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);        [DllImport("User32.DLL")]        public static extern int SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, UInt32 Msg, Int32 wParam, Int32 lParam);        public int SelectedItemCount        {            get            {                return SendMessage(ShellListViewHandle, LVM_GETSELECTEDCOUNT, IntPtr.Zero.ToInt32(), IntPtr.Zero.ToInt32());            }        }        public int Count        {            get            {                return SendMessage(ShellListViewHandle, LVM_GETITEMCOUNT, IntPtr.Zero.ToInt32(), IntPtr.Zero.ToInt32());            }        }        public string GetItemText(int idx)        {            // Declare and populate the LVITEM structure            LVITEM lvi = new LVITEM();            lvi.mask = LVIF_TEXT;            lvi.cchTextMax = 512;            lvi.iItem = idx;            // the zero-based index of the ListView item            lvi.iSubItem = 0;         // the one-based index of the subitem, or 0 if this            //  structure refers to an item rather than a subitem            lvi.pszText = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(512);            // Send the LVM_GETITEM message to fill the LVITEM structure            IntPtr ptrLvi = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(Marshal.SizeOf(lvi));            Marshal.StructureToPtr(lvi, ptrLvi, false);            try            {                SendMessagePtr(ShellListViewHandle, LVM_GETITEM, IntPtr.Zero, ptrLvi);            }            catch (Exception ex)            {                System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(ex.Message);            }            // Extract the text of the specified item            string itemText = Marshal.PtrToStringAuto(lvi.pszText);            return itemText;        }        IntPtr ShellListViewHandle        {            get            {                IntPtr _ProgMan = GetShellWindow();                IntPtr _SHELLDLL_DefViewParent = _ProgMan;                IntPtr _SHELLDLL_DefView = FindWindowEx(_ProgMan, IntPtr.Zero, "SHELLDLL_DefView", null);                IntPtr _SysListView32 = FindWindowEx(_SHELLDLL_DefView, IntPtr.Zero, "SysListView32", "FolderView");                return _SysListView32;            }        }        public int GetSelectedItemIndex(int iPos = -1)        {            return SendMessage(ShellListViewHandle, LVM_GETNEXTITEM, iPos, LVNI_SELECTED);        }    }