How do I get File Type Information based on extension? (not MIME) in c#

How do I get the general File type description based on extension like Explorer does it? So not MIME but the information that the end-user sees, like.

.doc = Microsoft Office Word 97 - 2003 Document .zip = ZIP File .avi = Video File.

And how can I get the 'secondary' information that seems to be available, which I guess it not extension based. Like on "Video Files" it can give you the 'Length' of the movie or on doc files how many pages it has.. etc etc..

Thanks Dan, Alright.. This answers the first question I had. Sadly not the second. Note: Not everything prints.. Credits to PInvoke.net

using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Text;
using System.Diagnostics;


namespace WindowsFormsApplication1
{
    static class Program
    {
        [DllImport("Shlwapi.dll", SetLastError = true, CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
        static extern uint AssocQueryString(AssocF flags, AssocStr str, string pszAssoc, string pszExtra, [Out] StringBuilder pszOut, [In][Out] ref uint pcchOut);

        /// <summary>
        /// The main entry point for the application.
        /// </summary>
        [STAThread]
        static void Main()
        {
            Debug.WriteLine(FileExtentionInfo(AssocStr.Command, ".doc"), "Command");
            Debug.WriteLine(FileExtentionInfo(AssocStr.DDEApplication, ".doc"), "DDEApplication");
            Debug.WriteLine(FileExtentionInfo(AssocStr.DDEIfExec, ".doc"), "DDEIfExec");
            Debug.WriteLine(FileExtentionInfo(AssocStr.DDETopic, ".doc"), "DDETopic");
            Debug.WriteLine(FileExtentionInfo(AssocStr.Executable, ".doc"), "Executable");
            Debug.WriteLine(FileExtentionInfo(AssocStr.FriendlyAppName, ".doc"), "FriendlyAppName");
            Debug.WriteLine(FileExtentionInfo(AssocStr.FriendlyDocName, ".doc"), "FriendlyDocName");
            Debug.WriteLine(FileExtentionInfo(AssocStr.NoOpen, ".doc"), "NoOpen");
            Debug.WriteLine(FileExtentionInfo(AssocStr.ShellNewValue, ".doc"), "ShellNewValue");

            //  DDEApplication: WinWord
            //DDEIfExec: Ñﻴ߾
            //  DDETopic: System
            //  Executable: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12\WINWORD.EXE
            //  FriendlyAppName: Microsoft Office Word
            //  FriendlyDocName: Microsoft Office Word 97 - 2003 Document


        }

        public static string FileExtentionInfo(AssocStr assocStr, string doctype)
        {
            uint pcchOut = 0;
            AssocQueryString(AssocF.Verify, assocStr, doctype, null, null, ref pcchOut);

            StringBuilder pszOut = new StringBuilder((int)pcchOut);
            AssocQueryString(AssocF.Verify, assocStr, doctype, null, pszOut, ref pcchOut);
            return pszOut.ToString();
        }

        [Flags]
        public enum AssocF
        {
            Init_NoRemapCLSID = 0x1,
            Init_ByExeName = 0x2,
            Open_ByExeName = 0x2,
            Init_DefaultToStar = 0x4,
            Init_DefaultToFolder = 0x8,
            NoUserSettings = 0x10,
            NoTruncate = 0x20,
            Verify = 0x40,
            RemapRunDll = 0x80,
            NoFixUps = 0x100,
            IgnoreBaseClass = 0x200
        }

        public enum AssocStr
        {
            Command = 1,
            Executable,
            FriendlyDocName,
            FriendlyAppName,
            NoOpen,
            ShellNewValue,
            DDECommand,
            DDEIfExec,
            DDEApplication,
            DDETopic
        }

    }
}

My code that include check to prevent from some common errors... Hope it helps :-)

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.IO;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Text;

namespace HQ.Util.Unmanaged
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Usage:  string executablePath = FileAssociation.GetExecFileAssociatedToExtension(pathExtension, "open");
    /// </summary>
    public static class FileAssociation
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// 
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="ext"></param>
        /// <param name="verb"></param>
        /// <returns>Return null if not found</returns>
        public static string GetExecFileAssociatedToExtension(string ext, string verb = null)
        {
            if (ext[0] != '.')
            {
                ext = "." + ext;
            }

            string executablePath = FileExtentionInfo(AssocStr.Executable, ext, verb); // Will only work for 'open' verb
            if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(executablePath))
            {
                executablePath = FileExtentionInfo(AssocStr.Command, ext, verb); // required to find command of any other verb than 'open'

                // Extract only the path
                if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(executablePath) && executablePath.Length > 1) 
                {
                    if (executablePath[0] == '"')
                    {
                        executablePath = executablePath.Split('\"')[1];
                    }
                    else if (executablePath[0] == '\'')
                    {
                        executablePath = executablePath.Split('\'')[1];
                    }
                }
            }

            // Ensure to not return the default OpenWith.exe associated executable in Windows 8 or higher
            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(executablePath) && File.Exists(executablePath) &&
                !executablePath.ToLower().EndsWith(".dll"))
            {
                if (executablePath.ToLower().EndsWith("openwith.exe"))
                {
                    return null; // 'OpenWith.exe' is th windows 8 or higher default for unknown extensions. I don't want to have it as associted file
                }
                return executablePath;
            }
            return executablePath;
        }

        [DllImport("Shlwapi.dll", SetLastError = true, CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
        static extern uint AssocQueryString(AssocF flags, AssocStr str, string pszAssoc, string pszExtra, [Out] StringBuilder pszOut, [In][Out] ref uint pcchOut);

        private static string FileExtentionInfo(AssocStr assocStr, string doctype, string verb)
        {
            uint pcchOut = 0;
            AssocQueryString(AssocF.Verify, assocStr, doctype, verb, null, ref pcchOut);

            Debug.Assert(pcchOut != 0);
            if (pcchOut == 0)
            {
                return "";
            }

            StringBuilder pszOut = new StringBuilder((int)pcchOut);
            AssocQueryString(AssocF.Verify, assocStr, doctype, verb, pszOut, ref pcchOut);
            return pszOut.ToString();
        }

        [Flags]
        public enum AssocF
        {
            Init_NoRemapCLSID = 0x1,
            Init_ByExeName = 0x2,
            Open_ByExeName = 0x2,
            Init_DefaultToStar = 0x4,
            Init_DefaultToFolder = 0x8,
            NoUserSettings = 0x10,
            NoTruncate = 0x20,
            Verify = 0x40,
            RemapRunDll = 0x80,
            NoFixUps = 0x100,
            IgnoreBaseClass = 0x200
        }

        public enum AssocStr
        {
            Command = 1,
            Executable,
            FriendlyDocName,
            FriendlyAppName,
            NoOpen,
            ShellNewValue,
            DDECommand,
            DDEIfExec,
            DDEApplication,
            DDETopic
        }



    }
}