My app needs to install some files that can be edited by the application at run time. Install shield provides an alias [CommonAppDataFolder] that will resolve to c:\\programDat
SHGetFolderPath/SHGetSpecialFolderPath
get you that, with CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA
argument.
See code snippet here (at the bottom): How to write a Windows XP Application that stores user and application data in the correct location by using Visual C++ ; the original link is no longer valid - code snippet is pulled below):
include <shlwapi.h>
#pragma comment(lib,"shlwapi.lib")
void CreateTemporaryFile()
{
TCHAR szPath[MAX_PATH];
// Get path for each computer, non-user specific and non-roaming data.
if ( SUCCEEDED( SHGetFolderPath( NULL, CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA,
NULL, 0, szPath ) ) )
{
TCHAR szTempFileName[MAX_PATH];
// Append product-specific path - this path needs to already exist
// for GetTempFileName to succeed.
PathAppend( szPath, _T("\\My Company\\My Product\\1.0\\") );
// Generate a temporary file name within this folder.
if (GetTempFileName( szPath,
_T("PRE"),
0,
szTempFileName ) != 0 )
{
HANDLE hFile = NULL;
// Open the file.
if (( hFile = CreateFile( szTempFileName,
GENERIC_WRITE,
0,
NULL,
CREATE_ALWAYS,
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL,
NULL )) != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE )
{
// Write temporary data (code omitted).
CloseHandle( hFile );
}
}
else
DWORD err = GetLastError();
}
}
See also: CSIDL.
Since Delphi XE5, this functionality is part of the framework.
System.IOUtils
TPath
GetPublicPath
See embarcadero docwiki for further informations.