OpenFileDialog() locks the folder

Question

I use OpenFileDialog() in my Silverlight application. When I select a file using ShowDialog() it simply locks the file until I close my application.

I am not able to rename or delete the folder when the application is running (silverlight application in browser)

If I try to select any other file in any another folder, I am able to rename the previous folder. It seems it is releasing the handle.

My goal: I want to rename/delete the folder in filesystem (manually) once I finished uploading.

I know it is not possible to point OpenFileDialog() to some other folder from code. Any pointers?

Btw, this is the windows error message:

The action can't be completed because the folder is open in another program. Close the folder and try again.

Answer 1

AFAIK it the way windows file system work - you can't rename folder while having some open file handles inside. Make sure that you release all resources from folder(File.Close() etc.) before trying to rename it.

Answer 2

Having assigned null to all variables holding a reference to OpenFileDialog and any FileInfo references or in code where all that stuff is out of scope, then try this:-

GC.Collect();

Its a very draconian thing to do and I wouldn't normally recommend it. If it doesn't fix your problem get rid of it.

Answer 3

I had the same problem. The follow fixed it

Stream fileStream = openFileDialog1.OpenFile();
if (fileStream != null)
{
   ...
   fileStream.Close();
}

By closing the stream my problem went away... :P

Answer 4

To avoid such behaviour set RestoreDirectory property value to true. Here you can read more: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.filedialog.restoredirectory.aspx