Can't access Documents folder from VB.net in Windows 7

Question

I've been struggling with this problem in VB.net for a while: whenever I try to access the My Documents, My video's or simular in Windows 7, I get an access denied error. The program that uses this code is a file-backup application, so it's important it can access everything. The app has admin rights, using this line:

requestedExecutionLevel level="requireAdministrator" uiAccess="false" />

To confirm, I also get a nice UAC popup when starting.

The app accesses the files twice. Once to calculate the file size, and once to actually copy the files. Here is the file-size calculation code (that I found online:)

Function GetFolderSize(ByVal DirPath As String, ByVal includeSubFolders As Boolean) As
Long
Try
Dim size As Long = 0
Dim diBase As New DirectoryInfo(DirPath)
Dim files() As FileInfo
If includeSubFolders Then
files = diBase.GetFiles("", SearchOption.AllDirectories)
Else
files = diBase.GetFiles("", SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly)
End If
Dim ie As IEnumerator = files.GetEnumerator
While ie.MoveNext And Not abort
size += DirectCast(ie.Current, FileInfo).Length
End While
Return size
Catch ex As Exception
MsgBox("Error: " & ex.Message)
Return -1
End Try
End Function

This gives me an error saying "Error: access to the path c:\users\vincent\documents\my videos is denied."

My file copy:

my.computer.filesystem.copydirectory(filepath, newcopy, false)

Returns the same error. Note: my OS is in Dutch so these error's may not be the exact same on an English OS: I translated them.

Anybody have a suggestion that might fix this? Thanks!

The rights that the user account under which this program runs matters here. You can verify with Explorer. Right-click the folder, Properties, Security tab. Ask more questions about it at superuser.com — Hans Passant

dbasnett dbasnett · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-17T20:04:22

This code will return a list of all directories starting at StartPath. Note the Try-Catches...

Public Class Form1

    Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, _
                              ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click

        Dim startPath As New IO.DirectoryInfo(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments))
        Dim startList As New List(Of IO.DirectoryInfo)
        startList.AddRange(startPath.GetDirectories())

        Dim allDirs As New List(Of IO.DirectoryInfo)
        allDirs.AddRange(GetDirs(startList))

        Dim listOfiles As New List(Of String)
        For Each d As IO.DirectoryInfo In allDirs
            Try
                listOfiles.AddRange(IO.Directory.GetFiles(d.FullName, "*.*"))
            Catch SecEx As UnauthorizedAccessException
                'here is the sceurity exception
                Debug.WriteLine(d.FullName)
            End Try
        Next
    End Sub


    Private Function GetDirs(ByVal theDirs As List(Of IO.DirectoryInfo)) As List(Of IO.DirectoryInfo)
        'add directories.  called recursively.
        Dim rv As New List(Of IO.DirectoryInfo)

        For Each d As IO.DirectoryInfo In theDirs
            rv.Add(d)
            Dim foo As List(Of IO.DirectoryInfo) = GetDirs(Me.GetSubDirs(d))
            If Not (foo Is Nothing OrElse foo.Count = 0) Then
                rv.AddRange(foo)
            End If
        Next
        Return rv
    End Function

    Private Function GetSubDirs(ByVal theDir As IO.DirectoryInfo) As List(Of IO.DirectoryInfo)
        Dim theSubDirs As New List(Of IO.DirectoryInfo)
        Try
            theSubDirs.AddRange(theDir.GetDirectories.ToList)
        Catch SecEx As UnauthorizedAccessException
            'here is the sceurity exception
            'Debug.WriteLine(theDir.FullName)
        End Try
        Return theSubDirs
    End Function

End Class

Can't access Documents folder from VB.net in Windows 7

1 Answers