how to get files selected in Everything into a Powershell array

[jimspoon]

I'd like to get files/folders selected in Everything (or any other file manager for that matter) into a Powershell array, so that I can process and do things with each file in Powershell. I know I can pass the selected files to a Powershell script using a context menu option, that's one way, but not always what I want.

I've also found that I can do a Ctrl+C copy of selected files/folders to the clipboard, and then use the Get-Clipboard cmdlet to pass them into a Powershell array. It seems you have to use the "-Format FileDropList" parameter in Windows Powershell to do this. (It also seems that the -Format FileDropList parameter is not available in the multi-platform Powershell Core.) I think I can use this to do what I want, but it does involve the extra step of copying the files in Everything before I invoke the Powershell script.

I've also looked for a direct way to get the selected files into an array, but haven't yet found how Powershell can see what files/folders are selected in a particular Explorer or Everything window and get them. I found this post in Superuser asking how to do it: https://superuser.com/questions/1379280 ... powershell - but no one could tell him how to do it.

I'm sure I could do this through Autohotkey, but it does seem like Powershell should be able to do this directly. Any ideas? It seems like it would be a good way to make Everything even more powerful.

[horst.epp]

The following AHK script takes the current Everything GUI results
and write them into a text file.
May be the core part of it gives you some ideas how to do that in Powershell.

Code: Select all

; Transfer Everything GUI results to TC
; Authors: Horst.Epp & Ovg (based on a script from user Highend in XYplorer forum)
; Last modified: 04.10.2022 (Changed regex by Ovg)
 
; https://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=75439 ...... Open Everything GUI results with TC LOADLIST
; https://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=75417 ...... LOADLIST command and UTF8 file lists
; https://www.voidtools.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=10594 Send ResultsList to Total Commander

; Build AutoHotkey_L
; Build x64
; Build Kill=true
; Build Zip=false
; Build Run=true

#NoEnv
;#Persistent
#SingleInstance Force
SetBatchLines, -1

; Create / read .ini file settings
SetTitleMatchMode, RegEx
iniFile := RegExReplace(A_ScriptFullPath, "(ahk|exe)$", "ini")

if not (FileExist(iniFile)) {
    iniContent :="
    (( LTrim
        [General]
	; DestinationFile
        ;    Where to save the output (full path to DestinationFile.txt)
        ; EverythingColumnPositions (Default: 2,1)
	;    The columns 'Name' and 'Path' must be visible in the Everything GUI Window
        ;    The first value is the position of the 'Path' column
        ;    The second value is the position of the 'Name' column
	; CloseEverything (Default 1 for yes)
	;    Should Everything GUI window be closed after transfering to TC
	; UseInstance (Empty for default instance)
        ;    Name of the Everything instance to be used for closing the GUI 

; The contents of the following lines must be adjusted if necessary, e.g. path and parameter adjustments.
;********************************************************************************************************
        DestinationFile = C:\Tools\Wincmd\Scripts\Results\Everything.txt
        EverythingColumnPositions=2,1
        AddEndSlash = 1
        CloseEverything = 1
        UseInstance =
        Everything = C:\Tools\Everything\Everything64.exe
        TotalCmd = C:\Tools\Wincmd\totalcmd64.exe
;********************************************************************************************************

    )"
    FileAppend, % iniContent, % iniFile, UTF-16
}
IniRead, DestinationFile, % iniFile, General, DestinationFile, %A_Space%
IniRead, EverythingColumnPositions, % iniFile, General, EverythingColumnPositions, 2`,1

IniRead, AddEndSlash, % iniFile, General, AddEndSlash, 1
IniWrite, %AddEndSlash%, % iniFile, General, AddEndSlash
IniRead, CloseEverything, % iniFile, General, CloseEverything, 1
IniWrite, %CloseEverything%, % iniFile, General, CloseEverything
IniRead, UseInstance, % iniFile, General, UseInstance, %A_Space%
IniWrite, %UseInstance%, % iniFile, General, UseInstance

IniRead, Everything, % iniFile, General, Everything, "C:\Tools\Everything\Everything64.exe"
IniRead, TotalCmd, % iniFile, General, TotalCmd, "C:\Tools\Wincmd\totalcmd64.exe"

DestinationFile           := ResolveEnvVars(DestinationFile)
EverythingColumnPositions := StrReplace(EverythingColumnPositions, " ")

; Force error if none is given (or path doesn't exist)
SplitPath, DestinationFile, , dstPath
if (DestinationFile = "" || !InStr(FileExist(dstPath), "D")) {
    Msgbox, 16, Fatal error, Destination file definition is missing or illegal named !
    Return
}
if (EverythingColumnPositions = "" || !InStr(EverythingColumnPositions, ",")) {
    EverythingColumnPositions := "2,1"
}

columnArray := StrSplit(EverythingColumnPositions, ",")

hWnd := WinExist("ahk_exe Everything(?:\d\d)*\.exe")

if hWnd
{
  ControlGet, winContent, List, , SysListView321, % "ahk_id" hWnd

  if (winContent)
  {
    fullContent := ""
;   Loop over row(s)
    Loop, Parse, winContent, `n
    {
      rowID := A_Index
      path  := ""
      name  := ""
      full  := ""
      Bad := 2
;     Loop over column(s)
      Loop, Parse, A_LoopField, % A_Tab
      {
        colID   := A_Index
        content := A_LoopField
        If (colID > columnArray[1] And colID > columnArray[2])
        {
          Break
        }
        Else
        {
          If (colID = columnArray[1])
          {
;	    If !RegExMatch(content,"i)^[a-z]:|\\\.*?\\")
	    If !RegExMatch(content,"i)^(?:[a-z]:|\\\.*?\\)")
            {
              Break
            }
            path := content
            Bad -= 1
            If !RegExMatch(path,"\\$")
            {
              path := path . "\"
            }
          }
          Else if (colID = columnArray[2])
          {
            If content is Space
            {
              Break
            }
            name := content
            Bad -= 1
          }
        }
      }
      If (Bad == 0)
      {
        full        := path . name
        If InStr(FileExist(full), "D")
        {
          if (AddEndSlash == 1)
          {
            if !RegExMatch(full,"\\$")
            {
              full := full . "\"
            }
          }
          Else
          {
            If RegExMatch(full,"\\$")
            {
              full := SubStr(full,1,StrLen(full)-1)
            }
          }
        }
        fullContent .= full "`n"
      }
    }
    fullContent := RegExReplace(fullContent,"\R$","")
    If (FileExist(DestinationFile))
      FileDelete, % DestinationFile

        FileAppend, % fullContent, % DestinationFile, UTF-16

	DestinationDir := SubStr(DestinationFile,1,InStr(DestinationFile, "\",,-1))
	Run %TotalCmd% /O /T /S LOADLIST:%DestinationFile%
	If (CloseEverything) {
             run %Everything% -instance "%UseInstance%" -close
	}
    }
    Else
;   Empty search result
    {
      Msgbox, 16,, Search result is Empty, Nothing to do ...
    }
; No Everything window visible
} Else {
    Msgbox, 16, Fatal error, Everything window does not exist!
}
SetTitleMatchMode, 1
return

; ==================================
; = GOTO: FUNCTIONS - ResolveEnvVars
; ==================================
; http://www.autohotkey.com/board/topic/40115-func-envvars-replace-environment-variables-in-text/#entry310601
ResolveEnvVars(str) {
    if sz := DllCall("ExpandEnvironmentStrings", "uint", &str, "uint", 0, "uint", 0)
    {
        VarSetCapacity(dst, A_IsUnicode ? sz * 2 : sz)
        if DllCall("ExpandEnvironmentStrings", "uint", &str, "str", dst, "uint", sz)
            return dst
    }
    return str
}

[jimspoon]

Thank you horst.epp I haven't had time to look at the AHK script yet but I definitely will.