Windows SDK: How to open a folder?

[ovidiucucu]

Q: Which WinAPI function can be used to open a folder?

A: To open a folder we can use CreateFile like for any file, but additionally we have to set FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS flag.
Here is an example that opens a folder then gets its creation date:

DWORD GetDirectoryCreationTime(LPCTSTR pszDir, FILETIME& ft)
{
   DWORD dwRet = NO_ERROR;
   HANDLE hFile = ::CreateFile(pszDir, 
                               GENERIC_READ, 
                               FILE_SHARE_READ|FILE_SHARE_WRITE,
                               NULL, 
                               OPEN_EXISTING, 
                               FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS, // required if open a directory 
                               NULL);

   if(INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE == hFile)
   {
      dwRet = ::GetLastError();
   }
   else
   {
      if(!::GetFileTime(hFile, &ft, NULL, NULL))
      {
         dwRet = ::GetLastError();
      }
      ::CloseHandle(hFile);
   }
   return dwRet;
}