Prevent Windows Explorer from interfering with Directory operations.

Question

Sometimes, no "foo" directory is left after running this code:

string folder = Path.Combine(Path.GetTempPath(), "foo");
if (!Directory.Exists(folder))
    Directory.CreateDirectory(folder);
Process.Start(@"c:\windows\explorer.exe", folder);
Thread.Sleep(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5));
Directory.Delete(folder, false);
Directory.CreateDirectory(folder);

It seems Windows Explorer keeps a reference to the folder, so the last CreateDirectory has nothing to do, but then the original folder is deleted. How can I fix the code?

EDIT: I'm sorry that my question wasn't clear. My objective is to create an empty "foo" directory. If the directory already exists, I delete it and create it anew. The problem is that if Windows Explorer is looking at the directory, the CreateDirectory call sometimes fails silently. No exception is raised; the directory just isn't created.

The code above reproduces the issue in my computer. Only the last two lines belong to my actual application. The previous lines are setup. After you run the code, does "foo" always exist? This is not the case half the time in my pc.

For the time being, I'm manually deleting each file and subdirectory of foo.

Answer 1

Since you did not provide details (like exceptions, errors), I will assume this is the problem.

I think the problem is that the explorer is still running when you run the command to delete the folder. This could be a locking problem.

Directory.Delete(folder, false);

Either that, or there is some other application accessing that folder or its sub-folders or files, if any by chance.

I would recommend not touching the folder via explorer or any other app, if possible, and wait for the explorer to exit first, before deleting the folder.

        Process p = Process.Start(@"c:\windows\explorer.exe", folder);
        Thread.Sleep(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5));
        p.WaitForExit(); //<-------
        Directory.Delete(folder, false);

Also, please do not ignore the exceptions and errors thrown and paste them here, if any.

Hope it helps.