Property Bags

Starting with version 5.50, SHLWAPI provides a set of functions for working with settings as property bags, and thus without needing to be especially concerned about what storage those settings come from or go to:

• SHCreatePropertyBagOnMemory
• SHCreatePropertyBagOnProfileSection
• SHCreatePropertyBagOnRegKey

Though the property bag makes for a neat container, practical use of the IPropertyBag interface involves some mucking around with the cumbersome VARIANT structure. This is relieved a little in version 6.00 by a large set of helper functions:

• SHPropertyBag_Delete
• SHPropertyBag_ReadBOOL
• SHPropertyBag_ReadBOOLOld
• SHPropertyBag_ReadBSTR
• SHPropertyBag_ReadDWORD
• SHPropertyBag_ReadGUID
• SHPropertyBag_ReadInt
• SHPropertyBag_ReadLONG
• SHPropertyBag_ReadPOINTL
• SHPropertyBag_ReadPOINTS
• SHPropertyBag_ReadRECTL
• SHPropertyBag_ReadSHORT
• SHPropertyBag_ReadStr
• SHPropertyBag_ReadStream
• SHPropertyBag_ReadType
• SHPropertyBag_WriteBOOL
• SHPropertyBag_WriteDWORD
• SHPropertyBag_WriteGUID
• SHPropertyBag_WriteInt
• SHPropertyBag_WriteLONG
• SHPropertyBag_WritePOINTL
• SHPropertyBag_WritePOINTS
• SHPropertyBag_WriteRECTL
• SHPropertyBag_WriteSHORT
• SHPropertyBag_WriteStr
• SHPropertyBag_WriteStream

Version 6.00 also introduces a few functions that have much less generality, being dedicated to maintenance of folder view states, yet are implemented in the same source file and are perhaps as well listed here as anywhere:

• SHGetPerScreenResName
• SHGetViewStatePropertyBag

All these functions are exported by ordinal only. Only SHGetViewStatePropertyBag is yet documented.