How do you get the Default Users folder (e.g. c:\users\Default)

Question

I\'ve looked at the Environment.GetFolderPath method and the System.Environment.SpecialFolder enum but I couldn\'t see anything that returns the path of the Default Users fo

Answer 1

There are lots of articles on the web that describe how to change the Default User Profile path:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/214636

http://www.nextofwindows.com/how-to-change-user-profile-default-location-in-windows-7/

They all say the current Default Profile Path is stored in the following registry location:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

e.g. %SystemDrive%\Users\Default

And I found this page to get the System Drive: How to get current windows directory e.g. C:\ in C#

Path.GetPathRoot(Environment.SystemDirectory)

So I'm going to use that. Thanks for your help.

UPDATE

I've just tried the following code and it returns C:\Users\Default. So there is no need to replace the %SystemDrive% text stored in the registry key. It replaces it automatically.

using (RegistryKey profileListKey = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(@"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList"))
{
    string defaultPath = profileListKey.GetValue("Default").ToString();
}

Answer 2

You can't because the access to that folder is denied, this folder is used only by the Microsoft. I sure Environment or any other class will not provide you such functionality. This can only be done with some sort of hacking maybe?

Answer 3

Snippet from LINQPad (Language: C# Program) that outputs 'C:\Users\Default\Desktop':

void Main()
{
    GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Desktop).Dump();
}

// Define other methods and classes here
[DllImport("shfolder.dll", CharSet=CharSet.Auto)]
internal static extern int SHGetFolderPath(IntPtr hwndOwner, int nFolder, int hToken, int dwFlags, StringBuilder lpszPath);

public static string GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder folder)
{
    if (!Enum.IsDefined(typeof(Environment.SpecialFolder), folder))
    {
        throw new Exception("Crap");
    }
    StringBuilder lpszPath = new StringBuilder(260);

    SHGetFolderPath(IntPtr.Zero, (int) folder, -1, 0, lpszPath);
    string path = lpszPath.ToString();
    new FileIOPermission(FileIOPermissionAccess.PathDiscovery, path).Demand();
    return path;
}

Edit: I had the following imports in LINQPad

System.Runtime.InteropServices
System.Globalization
System.Security.Permissions

I used reflector to look at Environment.GetFolderPath and then took a look at SHGetFolderPath that specifies by passing -1 as hToken you get Default User instead.