How to: Determine a Directory's Attributes in Visual Basic
The GetDirectoryInfo method returns a DirectoryInfo object whose Attributes property can be queried to determine information about the directory.
The following table lists the members of the FileAttributes enumeration used by the Attributes property.
Member |
Numeric Value |
Description |
|---|---|---|
ReadOnly |
1 |
The file is read-only. |
Hidden |
2 |
The file is hidden and therefore not included in an ordinary directory listing. |
System |
4 |
The file is a system file. The file is part of the operating system or used exclusively by the operating system. |
Directory |
16 |
The file is a directory. |
Archive |
32 |
The file's archive status. Applications use this attribute to mark files for backup or removal. |
Device |
64 |
Not used. |
Normal |
128 |
The file is normal and no other attributes are set. This attribute is valid only if used alone. |
Temporary |
256 |
The file is temporary. File systems attempt to keep all of the data in memory for quicker access. A temporary file should be deleted when it is no longer needed. |
SparseFile |
512 |
The file is a sparse file. Sparse files are typically large files containing data that is mostly zeroes. |
ReparsePoint |
1024 |
The file contains a reparse point, which is a block of user-defined data associated with a file or directory. |
Compressed |
2048 |
The file is compressed. |
Offline |
4096 |
The file is offline and the data is not immediately available. |
NotContentIndexed |
8192 |
The file will not be indexed by the operating system's content indexing service. |
Encrypted |
16384 |
The file or directory is encrypted. For files, this means that all data in the file is encrypted. For directories, this means that encryption is the default for newly created files and directories. |
To determine if a directory is hidden
Use the GetDirectoryInfo method to return a DirectoryInfo object. This example returns DirectoryInfo for the directory TestDir, gets a FileAttributes object from the DirectoryInfo object and checks it to determine whether or not it is hidden. You can test for other attributes in a similar manner.
Dim checkFile As System.IO.DirectoryInfo checkFile = My.Computer.FileSystem.GetDirectoryInfo("C:\TestDir") Dim attributeReader As System.IO.FileAttributes attributeReader = checkFile.Attributes If (attributeReader And System.IO.FileAttributes.Hidden) > 0 Then MsgBox("Directory is hidden") End If
See Also
Tasks
How to: Determine a File's Attributes in Visual Basic