Sort Order of Internet Explorer Favorites

Problem/Question/Abstract:

You can easily get the list of favorites from the directory, but how can you emulate the same sort order showing in Internet Explorer?

Answer:

I could not find this information anywhere on the Microsoft site or on Google Groups, so I had to just start digging in the registry and in the binary.

The registry path for favorites is

HKey_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MenuOrder\Favorites\

containing the directory structure mirroring the structure in your favorites.

The registry key "order" is a binary containing the visible name, order number, and DOS filename.  The start of the registry binary looks like:

08 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 24 06 00 00 01 00 00 00
16 00 00 00 48 00 00 0D 00 00 00 00 39 00 32 00
98 00 00 00 B1 2C 74 B5 20 00 42 65 6E 20 5A 65
69 67 6C 65 72 27 73 20 44 65 6C 70 68 69 20 50
61 67 65 2E 75 72 6C 00 42 45 4E 5A 45 49 7E 31
2E 55 52 4C 00 00 00 00 05 ...(continues)

Position 16 contains a count of the number of items, 22 in this case. (This is Hex, remember!)

08 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 24 06 00 00 01 00 00 00
16 00 00 00 48 00 00 0D 00 00 00 00 39 00 32 00
98 00 00 00 B1 2C 74 B5 20 00 42 65 6E 20 5A 65
69 67 6C 65 72 27 73 20 44 65 6C 70 68 69 20 50
61 67 65 2E 75 72 6C 00 42 45 4E 5A 45 49 7E 31
2E 55 52 4C 00 00 00 00 05 ...(continues)

Position 17 starts data, with 3 nulls and the count of total data (Hex 48 or 68 in decimal) and 3 more nulls and the order number (position 7, relative to the data start and "D" or 13).

08 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 24 06 00 00 01 00 00 00
16 00 00 00 48 00 00 0D 00 00 00 00 39 00 32 00
98 00 00 00 B1 2C 74 B5 20 00 42 65 6E 20 5A 65
69 67 6C 65 72 27 73 20 44 65 6C 70 68 69 20 50
61 67 65 2E 75 72 6C 00 42 45 4E 5A 45 49 7E 31
2E 55 52 4C 00 00 00 00 05 ...(continues)

Relative position 20 is the count of the name, including the DOS filename.

08 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 24 06 00 00 01 00 00 00
16 00 00 00 48 00 00 0D 00 00 00 00 39 00 32 00
98 00 00 00 B1 2C 74 B5 20 00 42 65 6E 20 5A 65
69 67 6C 65 72 27 73 20 44 65 6C 70 68 69 20 50
61 67 65 2E 75 72 6C 00 42 45 4E 5A 45 49 7E 31
2E 55 52 4C 00 00 00 00 05 ...(continues)

Relative position 25 begins the name, terminated by a null

08 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 24 06 00 00 01 00 00 00
16 00 00 00 48 00 00 0D 00 00 00 00 39 00 32 00
98 00 00 00 B1 2C 74 B5 20 00 42 65 6E 20 5A 65
69 67 6C 65 72 27 73 20 44 65 6C 70 68 69 20 50
61 67 65 2E 75 72 6C 00 42 45 4E 5A 45 49 7E 31
2E 55 52 4C 00 00 00 00 05 ...(continues)

Then a DOS filename, 3 nulls, then a hex value 5 as a terminator.

08 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 24 06 00 00 01 00 00 00
16 00 00 00 48 00 00 0D 00 00 00 00 39 00 32 00
98 00 00 00 B1 2C 74 B5 20 00 42 65 6E 20 5A 65
69 67 6C 65 72 27 73 20 44 65 6C 70 68 69 20 50
61 67 65 2E 75 72 6C 00 42 45 4E 5A 45 49 7E 31
2E 55 52 4C 00 00 00 00 05 ...(continues)

And the next record starts after the #5 terminator.

An ugly little chunk of code to pull this data and put it in a TMemo out would be:

const
  REGLEN = 5000;
var
  I, A, B: Integer;
  reg: TRegistry;
  buf: array[0..REGLEN] of char;
  itembuf: array[0..1000] of char;
  lastpos: Integer;
  order: Integer;
  name, dosfile: array[0..200] of char;
  namecount, count: Integer;

begin
  reg := TRegistry.Create;
  reg.RootKey := HKEY_CURRENT_USER;
  reg.OpenKey('Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MenuOrder\Favorites\Delphi', FALSE);
  reg.ReadBinaryData('Order', buf, REGLEN);

  count := ord(buf[16]);
  Memo1.Lines.Add('How Many: ' + intToStr(count));

  lastpos := 17;
  for I := 0 to count - 1 do // Iterate
  begin
    for a := lastpos to lastpos + 999 do // Iterate
    begin
      itembuf[a - lastpos] := buf[a];
    end; // for

    order := ord(itembuf[7]);
    Memo1.Lines.Add('This order ' + intToStr(order));

    namecount := ord(itembuf[20]);
    for a := 25 to namecount + 25 do // Iterate
    begin
      name[a - 25] := itembuf[a];
      if itembuf[a] = #0 then
        break;
    end; // for
    Memo1.Lines.Add('Name ' + name);

    for b := a to a + 13 do // Iterate
    begin
      dosfile[b - a - 1] := itembuf[b];
    end; // for
    if dosfile = '' then
      dosfile := name;

    Memo1.Lines.Add('DOS File ' + dosfile);

    lastpos := ord(itembuf[3]) + lastpos;
  end; // for
  reg.free;