Special folders

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 This article is based on Visual Basic 6. Find other Visual Basic 6 articles.

There are numerous ways to get "special" paths in windows. You can read them directly from the registry, but this is not recommended. You can also get a few select ones by reading the environment variables, but again, these are not guaranteed. The proper way is to use the SHGetSpecialFolderLocation() function.

Private Declare Function SHGetSpecialFolderLocation Lib "shell32" _
 (ByVal hwndOwner As Long, ByVal nFolder As Long, pidl As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function SHGetPathFromIDList Lib "shell32" Alias "SHGetPathFromIDListA" _
 (ByVal pidl As Long, ByVal pszPath As String) As Long

Private Const ERROR_SUCCESS = 0
Private Const MAX_LENGTH = 260

Public Function GetSpecialFolder(ByVal CSIDL As Long) As String
Dim sPath As String
Dim pidl As Long

  'Get the ID list from the Path ID
  If SHGetSpecialFolderLocation(0, CSIDL, pidl) = ERROR_SUCCESS Then
    'Allocate the space for the path
    sPath = Space$(MAX_LENGTH)
    'Get the real path from the ID list
    If SHGetPathFromIDList(ByVal pidl, ByVal sPath) Then
      'Strip off the trailing null characters
      GetSpecialFolder = Left$(sPath, InStr(sPath, Chr$(0)) - 1)
      'And add a trailing \
      If Right(GetSpecialFolder, 1) <> "\" Then GetSpecialFolder = GetSpecialFolder & "\"
    End If
  End If
End Function

The only exception to this rule is the temporary folder. For this, you need to make use of the GetTempPath() function.

Public Function TemporaryPath() As String
Dim Data As String
Dim Size As Long

  'Get the size needed to store the path
  Size = GetTempPath(0, "")
  'Create a string long enough
  Data = String(Size, vbNullChar)
  'Get the Temporary path itself
  GetTempPath Len(Data), Data
  'And remove the trailing Null character
  TemporaryPath = Left(Data, Len(Data) - 1)
End Function

CSIDL folder values

The values for various folders are as follows:

Folder Constant Value Example
Documents
My Documents CSIDL_PERSONAL &H05 (user)\My Documents
My Pictures CSIDL_MYPICTURES &H27 (user)\My Documents\My Pictures
My Music &H0D (user)\My Documents\My Music
Common documents CSIDL_COMMON_DOCUMENTS &H2E (all users)\Documents
Common Pictures &H36 (all users)\Documents\My Pictures
Common Music &H35 (all users)\Documents\My Music
Common Videos &H37 (all users)\Documents\My Videos
Start menu
Start menu CSIDL_STARTMENU &H0B (user)\Start Menu
Programs CSIDL_PROGRAMS &H02 (user)\Start Menu\Programs
Startup CSIDL_STARTUP &H07 (user)\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
Common start menu CSIDL_COMMON_STARTMENU &H16 (all users)\Start Menu
Common programs CSIDL_COMMON_PROGRAMS &H17 (all users)\Start Menu\Programs
Common Startup CSIDL_COMMON_STARTUP &H18 (all users)\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
Shell folders
Desktop CSIDL_DESKTOPDIRECTORY &H10 (user)\Desktop
Favourites CSIDL_FAVORITES &H06 (user)\Favorites
Recent documents CSIDL_RECENT &H08 (user)\Recent
Send to... CSIDL_SENDTO &H09 (user)\SendTo
Templates CSIDL_TEMPLATES &H15 (user)\Templates
Common desktop CSIDL_COMMON_DESKTOPDIRECTORY &H19 (all users)\Desktop
Common favourites CSIDL_COMMON_FAVORITES &H1F (all users)\Favourites
Common templates CSIDL_COMMON_TEMPLATES &H2D (all users)\Templates
"Data" folders
Application data CSIDL_APPDATA &H1A (user)\Application Data
Local application data CSIDL_LOCAL_APPDATA &H1C (user)\Local Settings\Application Data
Common application data CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA &H23 (all users)\Application Data
IE folders
Temporary internet files CSIDL_INTERNET_CACHE &H20
IE Cookies CSIDL_COOKIES &H21
IE History CSIDL_HISTORY &H22
System folders
Windows directory CSIDL_WINDOWS &H24 C:\Windows
System directory CSIDL_SYSTEM &H25 C:\Windows\System32
Fonts CSIDL_FONTS &H14 C:\Windows\Fonts
Program files CSIDL_PROGRAM_FILES &H26 C:\Program Files
Common files CSIDL_PROGRAM_FILES_COMMON &H2B C:\Program Files\Common Files
User profile CSIDL_PROFILE &H28 (user)
Admin tools
Common admin tools CSIDL_COMMON_ADMINTOOLS &H2F (all users)\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools
Admin tools CSIDL_ADMINTOOLS &H30 {user}\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools

See also