How to get Program Files folder path (not Program Files (x86)) from 32bit WOW process?

Question

I need to get the path to the native (rather than the WOW) program files directory from a 32bit WOW process.

When I pass CSIDL_PROGRAM_FILES (or CSIDL_PROGRAM_FILESX86)

Answer 1

The best and universal way to get path to "Program Files", is to query it from the registry:

64-Bit-Process can query: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ProgramFilesDir to get "C:\Program Files" HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ProgramFilesDir to get "C:\Program Files (x86)"

32-Bit-Process (Wow64) can query: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ProgramFilesDir to get "C:\Program Files (x86)" HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ProgramFilesDir with KEY_WOW64_64KEY option! to get "C:\Program Files"

Pseudo-code:

OpenKey(hKey, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, L"SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion", KEY_READ | KEY_WOW64_64KEY);
QueryStringValue(hKey, L"ProgramFilesDir", sValue);