How to reference the C:\Users\Public directory programmatically in C#

Question

Is it safe to programmatically reference the public folder through:

Directory = System.Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable(\"public\")+\"MyCompanyName\" // et         


        

Answer 1

It depends on what you want to achieve. There is a enum called SpecialFolder. You can use it to get the Path to some Directories. For Example:

System.Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonDesktopDirectory)

points to "C:\Users\Public\Desktop".

IMHO, your way isn't wrong, though i would do some Exception Handling in case the EnvVar is really missing. Also you could use the ENUM with "CommonDesktopDirectory" and get rid of the "\Desktop" part.

Answer 2

Have you looked at this ?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.environment.specialfolder.aspx

Specifies enumerated constants used to retrieve directory paths to system special folders.

Ie

Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData)

Answer 3

This seems a tad questionable, but it should work:

// This should give you something like C:\Users\Public\Documents
string documentsPath = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonDocuments);

var directory = new DirectoryInfo(documentsPath);

// Now this should give you something like C:\Users\Public
string commonPath = directory.Parent.FullName;

Answer 4

You can get all these %wildcard% literals by looking into

Windows->Start-->regedit-->

Then, you perform

using System;
string path2Downloads = Environment.ExpandEnvironmentVariables(@"%USERPROFILE%\Downloads");

string path2Music = Environment.ExpandEnvironmentVariables(@"%USERPROFILE%\Music");

... and, so on .... and to test:

using System.IO;

string[] files = { "" };
if (Directory.Exists(path2Music)) {
    files = Directory.GetFiles(path2Music);
}

Answer 5

If you want a place to put application-specific data that can accessed by all users, use as a base:

Environment.GetFolderPath(SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData)

Also, consider using Path.Combine to combine elements to form a new path:

Path.Combine(
    Environment.GetFolderPath(SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData),
    "MyCompanyName")

Answer 6

Notice that the Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonDesktopDirectory is only available in .NET 4.0. For my .NET 3.5 systems (Windows 7 or XP) I used the registry key for the Shell Folders. My code snippet is in VB.NET.

Private mRegShellPath="Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders"
Private mCommonDesktop = Nothing

' dgp rev 3/8/2012
Private ReadOnly Property CommonDesktop As String
    Get
        If mCommonDesktop Is Nothing Then
            Dim RegKey As RegistryKey
            Try
                RegKey = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(mRegShellPath, False)
                mCommonDesktop = RegKey.GetValue("Common Desktop")
            Catch ex As Exception
                mCommonDesktop = ""
            End Try
        End If

        Return mCommonDesktop
    End Get

End Property