Introduction:
This tutorial is on how to create a file manager in Visual Basic.

Design:
This program requires the following:
{component} {name} {text} {use}
Button button1 Open To open the directory or file selected.
Button button2 Root To reset to the C:\ (drive).
Button button3 Delete To delete the selected directory or file.
Listbox listbox1 - To list the directories and files held within the current directory the user is browsing.

Variables:
We need to keep track of the current path of the listbox so we need to create and use a string, lets name it 'path'...

1. Dim
   
   path As
   
   String
   
   = "C:\"
   

It has the default value of the root Windows C: drive path (C:\).

Open:
Now for the open button. First we check if the selected item within the listbox is a directory, if it is we set the path appropriately and run a new function we have not created yet named 'updateListbox'. If it is a file that is selected, we open it with the default program set on the computer...

1. Private
   
   Sub
   
   Button1_Click(sender As
   
   Object
   
   , e As
   
   EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
   
2. If
   
   Not
   
   (ListBox1.SelectedItem = Nothing
   
   ) Then
   
3. If
   
   (My.Computer.FileSystem.DirectoryExists(path + ListBox1.SelectedItem)) Then
   
4. path += ListBox1.SelectedItem + "\"
   
5. updateListbox()
   
6. ElseIf
   
   (My.Computer.FileSystem.FileExists(path + ListBox1.SelectedItem)) Then
   
7. Diagnostics.Process.Start(path + ListBox1.SelectedItem)
   
8. End
   
   If
   
9. End
   
   If
   
10. End
    
    Sub
    

updateListbox:
Now for the function we already call from the open button, button1. It simply iterates through each directory and file held within the computers filesystem at the current path and adds each one to the listbox. Of course we delete all the currently held items first....

1. Private
   
   Function
   
   updateListbox()
   
2. ListBox1.Items.Clear()
   
3. For
   
   Each
   
   f As
   
   String
   
   In
   
   My.Computer.FileSystem.GetDirectories(path)
   
4. ListBox1.Items.Add(f.Split("\"
   
   )(f.Split("\"
   
   ).Count() - 1))
   
5. Next
   
6. For
   
   Each
   
   f As
   
   String
   
   In
   
   My.Computer.FileSystem.GetFiles(path)
   
7. ListBox1.Items.Add(f.Split("\"
   
   )(f.Split("\"
   
   ).Count() - 1))
   
8. Next
   
9. End
   
   Function
   

Root:
The root button is simple. We simply set the path to the default Windows path (C:\, the C drive) and run the 'updateListbox' function...

1. Private
   
   Sub
   
   Button3_Click(sender As
   
   Object
   
   , e As
   
   EventArgs) Handles Button3.Click
   
2. path = "C:\"
   
3. updateListbox()
   
4. End
   
   Sub
   

Delete:
For the delete button function we check again whether the selected item is a directory or file and use the appropriate function within the my.computer.filesystem module path to delete it. If it is a directory, we use the mode fileIO.deleteDirectoryOption.deleteAllContents) to clear the entire directory; there are other options available and we could ask the user to confirm whether they want to delete the directory or not...

1. Private
   
   Sub
   
   Button2_Click(sender As
   
   Object
   
   , e As
   
   EventArgs) Handles Button2.Click
   
2. Dim
   
   delPath As
   
   String
   
   = path + ListBox1.SelectedItem
   
3. If
   
   (My.Computer.FileSystem.DirectoryExists(delPath)) Then
   
4. My.Computer.FileSystem.DeleteDirectory(delPath, FileIO.DeleteDirectoryOption.DeleteAllContents)
   
5. ElseIf
   
   (My.Computer.FileSystem.FileExists(delPath)) Then
   
6. My.Computer.FileSystem.DeleteFile(delPath)
   
7. End
   
   If
   
8. End
   
   Sub