# Shell.application.windows doesn't contain IE windows

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/shell-application-windows-doesnt-contain-ie-windows/161438>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [February 26, 2009, 2:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/shell-application-windows-doesnt-contain-ie-windows/161438 "2009-02-26T14:06:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![wallee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/3d9bf3/32.png) [@wallee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wallee)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2009, 2:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/shell-application-windows-doesnt-contain-ie-windows/161438/1 "2009-02-26T14:06:02Z")

</div>

Hi,

I found a verty strange thing on my machine: when I run the following  
script, it only shows windows of Explorer, but no internet Explorer  
window, though I do open an IE window:

require ‘win32ole’  
shell = WIN32OLE.new(‘Shell.Application’)  
shell.Windows.each do |window|  
puts “file=#{window.FullName}”  
end

the output is:  
file=C:\Windows\Explorer.EXE

expects another ie window like file=c:\program files\Internet  
Explorer\IEXPLORER.EXE.

This make me crazy. Any help will be great appreciated.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![wallee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/3d9bf3/32.png) [@wallee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wallee)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2009, 5:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/shell-application-windows-doesnt-contain-ie-windows/161438/2 "2009-02-26T17:40:51Z")

</div>

Hi,

afaik, the difference between explorer and iexplorer is in they  
functionality. Explorer is for example that thing which runs when you  
double  
click on My Computer. The web browser Internet Explorer is based on  
explorer and extends it’s functionality. (I guess it’s something like  
konqueror in KDE, where konqueror serve as main tool for disk browsing  
as  
well as web browsing).  
But those 2 applications are 2 different applications hence 2 different  
names.

I hope this answer your problem.

V.

P.S. For example when your task bar dissapear you can run (through  
Ctrl+Shit+ESC) a new instance of explorer.exe and it appears again.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![wallee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/3d9bf3/32.png) [@wallee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wallee)\
**Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 5:48am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/shell-application-windows-doesnt-contain-ie-windows/161438/3 "2009-02-27T05:48:33Z")

</div>

Vladimir F. wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> afaik, the difference between explorer and iexplorer is in they  
> functionality. Explorer is for example that thing which runs when you  
> double  
> click on My Computer. The web browser Internet Explorer is based on  
> explorer and extends it’s functionality. (I guess it’s something like  
> konqueror in KDE, where konqueror serve as main tool for disk browsing  
> as  
> well as web browsing).  
> But those 2 applications are 2 different applications hence 2 different  
> names.
> 
> I hope this answer your problem.
> 
> V.
> 
> P.S. For example when your task bar dissapear you can run (through  
> Ctrl+Shit+ESC) a new instance of explorer.exe and it appears again.

Yes, they are 2 different applications. But I mean shell ought to find  
these 2 applications all, not only explorer. On my local ruby script, it  
only find explorer application, but in windows taskmanager there are 2  
tasks: explorer and internet explorer. I want to know how can ruby get  
the correct application info on windows 2008.