Microsoft KB Archive/194702

= How to locate Windows special folder locations =

Article ID: 194702

Article Last Modified on 2/21/2005

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Visual FoxPro 3.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Visual FoxPro 3.0b Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Visual FoxPro 5.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Visual FoxPro 5.0a
 * Microsoft Visual FoxPro 6.0 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Visual FoxPro 7.0 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Visual FoxPro 8.0 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Visual FoxPro 9.0 Professional Edition

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This article was previously published under Q194702



SUMMARY
Microsoft Windows 9x and Windows NT make use of many operating system special folders. These folders represent specific locations for application data, users settings, etc. It is possible to programmatically locate these folder locations using the SHGetSpecialFolderPath API function.

The following program displays the full special folder path to the Windows desktop. You can alter the program to show the full path of any of the special folders by passing the appropriate special folder constant to the SHGetSpecialFolderPath API call.

This program will only run on Windows 98 or Windows 95 and Windows NT systems that are configured with the Windows Desktop Update. To install the Windows Desktop Update, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/ie

You do not have install Windows Desktop update when you are running the code on a computer that is running Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows 2003 Server.



MORE INFORMATION
Save the following code as a program and run it to display the full path of the Windows Desktop special folder:

*** Define Special Folder Constants #define CSIDL_PROGRAMS                2   &&Program Groups Folder #define CSIDL_PERSONAL                5   &&Personal Documents Folder #define CSIDL_FAVORITES               6   &&Favorites Folder #define CSIDL_STARTUP                 7   &&Startup Group Folder #define CSIDL_RECENT                  8   &&Recently Used Documents &&Folder #define CSIDL_SENDTO                  9   &&Send To Folder #define CSIDL_STARTMENU               11  &&Start Menu Folder #define CSIDL_DESKTOPDIRECTORY        16  &&Desktop Folder #define CSIDL_NETHOOD                 19  &&Network Neighborhood Folder #define CSIDL_TEMPLATES               21  &&Document Templates Folder #define CSIDL_COMMON_STARTMENU        22  &&Common Start Menu Folder #define CSIDL_COMMON_PROGRAMS         23  &&Common Program Groups &&Folder #define CSIDL_COMMON_STARTUP          24  &&Common Startup Group Folder #define CSIDL_COMMON_DESKTOPDIRECTORY 25  &&Common Desktop Folder #define CSIDL_APPDATA                 26  &&Application Data Folder #define CSIDL_PRINTHOOD               27  &&Printers Folder #define CSIDL_COMMON_FAVORITES        31  &&Common Favorites Folder #define CSIDL_INTERNET_CACHE          32  &&Temp. Internet Files Folder #define CSIDL_COOKIES                 33  &&Cookies Folder #define CSIDL_HISTORY                 34  &&History Folder

*** Initialize variables cSpecialFolderPath = space(255)

*** Declare API's  DECLARE SHGetSpecialFolderPath IN SHELL32.DLL ; LONG hwndOwner, ; STRING @cSpecialFolderPath, ; LONG nWhichFolder

*** Get Special Folder Path SHGetSpecialFolderPath(0, @cSpecialFolderPath, CSIDL_DESKTOPDIRECTORY)

*** Format Special Folder Path cSpecialFolderPath=SubStr(RTrim(cSpecialFolderPath),1, ;                     Len(RTrim(cSpecialFolderPath))-1)

*** Display Special Folder Path WAIT WINDOW cSpecialFolderPath

Additional query words: kbVFP500 kbvfp300b kbvfp500a

Keywords: kbhowto KB194702

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