Meziantou.Framework.Win32.PerceivedType 2.0.19

Meziantou.Framework.Win32.PerceivedType

A .NET library for determining a file's perceived type based on its extension using Windows APIs.

Usage

This library provides functionality to get a file's perceived type (text, image, audio, video, etc.) based on its extension by querying the Windows registry and using the AssocGetPerceivedType Win32 API.

Get Perceived Type

using Meziantou.Framework.Win32;

// Get perceived type for a file extension
var perceived = Perceived.GetPerceivedType(".txt");
Console.WriteLine(perceived.PerceivedType); // Text
Console.WriteLine(perceived.PerceivedTypeSource); // SoftCoded or HardCoded

// Works with various file types
var image = Perceived.GetPerceivedType(".jpg");
Console.WriteLine(image.PerceivedType); // Image

var video = Perceived.GetPerceivedType(".mp4");
Console.WriteLine(video.PerceivedType); // Video

var audio = Perceived.GetPerceivedType(".mp3");
Console.WriteLine(audio.PerceivedType); // Audio

Add Custom Perceived Types

You can add custom perceived types or override system-defined types:

// Add a custom perceived type
Perceived.AddPerceived(".myext", PerceivedType.Text);

// Add default perceived types for common extensions
Perceived.AddDefaultPerceivedTypes();

Perceived Types

The library supports the following perceived types:

• Text - Text files (.txt, .cs, .html, .xml, etc.)
• Image - Image files (.jpg, .png, .gif, etc.)
• Audio - Audio files (.mp3, .wav, etc.)
• Video - Video files (.mp4, .avi, .mpeg, etc.)
• Compressed - Compressed files (.zip, .rar, etc.)
• Document - Document files (.doc, .pdf, etc.)
• Application - Application files (.exe, .dll, etc.)
• System - System files
• GameMedia - Game media files
• Contacts - Contact files
• Custom - Custom type defined in registry
• Unspecified - No perceived type
• Unknown - Unknown type

Perceived Type Source

The PerceivedTypeSource enum indicates where the perceived type information comes from:

• Undefined - No perceived type was found
• SoftCoded - Determined through registry association
• HardCoded - Inherently known to the OS
• NativeSupport - Determined through OS codec
• GdiPlus - Supported by GDI+
• WmSdk - Supported by Windows Media SDK
• ZipFolder - Supported by Windows compressed folders
• Mime - Determined through MIME content types

Platform Support

This library is Windows-only and requires Windows XP or later (Windows 5.1.2600+).

Additional Resources

• AssocGetPerceivedType function (Windows)