Why can't I find the #define for CSIDL_PROFILES?

Question

I am trying to use SHGetFolderPath() to determine the path of the user profiles folder. The documentation states that CSIDL_PROFILES defines this folder:

CSIDL_PROFILES (0x003e) Version 6.0. The file system directory containing user profile folders. A typical path is C:\Documents and Settings.

I am using Visual Studio 2005 SP1, and I cannot locate the definition of the constant CSIDL_PROFILES in the Platform SDK include files? Do I need a new version of the Platform SDK?

So I did some more experimenting by using the ID 0x3e in place of the symbol. However, it looks like 0x3e is not a valid argument to the shell functions that accept CSIDL_* arguments (an invalid argument error is returned).

So I guess CSIDL_PROFILES is not a valid argument and the at least some of the MSDN pages on the subject are incorrect when they mention this symbol. I have to say in all my years of working with the Win32/MSDN documentation I can't remember a similar situation.

Answer 1

It's not listed in the MSDN documentation for CSIDLs, so a newer version of the PSDK is unlikely to help you.

You can obviously do it yourself:

#define CSIDL_PROFILES 0x003E

... but in view of the fact that it appears totally undocumented by MS, it's not something I'd recommend.

Answer 2

I'd say this was removed when someone noticed that it's worthless. Waht can you do with it anyway? You still have to determine for each user whether his profile actually exists under this directory. But since you're normally checking this per user, the only point when you need the default is when you're creating a new user profile. And that's Windows-internal code anyway.