How do I programmatically retrieve the actual path to the “Program Files” folder? [duplicate]

Answer 1

Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles) is probably the best solution, but another possible variant is evaluating the value of the ProgramFiles environment variable. For this, you can use the GetEnvironmentVariable or ExpandEnvironmentVariables method of the Environment class:

Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("ProgramFiles")

Environment.ExpandEnvironmentVariables("%ProgramFiles%")

Answer 2

.NET provides an enumeration of 'special folders' for Program Files, My Documents, etc.

The code to convert from the enumeration to the actual path looks like this:

Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/14tx8hby.aspx

Answer 3

Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("PROGRAMFILES(X86)") ?? Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles)

gets "program files (x86)" in 64-bits Windows and "program files" in 32 bit.

Answer 4

You can access the environment variable called: %PROGRAMFILES%

i.e:

%PROGRAMFILES%\Maxis\SimCity

in C#:

System.Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles

Answer 5

You would use GetFolderPath in the Environment class.

try {
    Environment.GetFolderPath( Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles )
catch( ArgumentException ex ) {
    Console.Out.WriteLine( ex.StackTrace );
}

Answer 6

Just to add to this.

If you're running in 32 bit mode (even on a 64 bit os), SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles and %PROGRAMFILES% will return ..Program Files (x86).

If you specifically need one and/or the other then you'll need to check as follows:

32 bit system:

SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles = ..Program Files\

64 bit system in 32 bit process: SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles = ..Program Files (x86)\ Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("ProgramW6432") = ..Program Files\

64 bit system in 64 bit process: SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles = ..Program Files\ Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("PROGRAMFILES(X86)") = ..Program Files (x86)\

Obviously this depends on your locale etc...