How do I programatically retrieve the actual path to "Program Files" folder?

Question

I realize the odds of a user changing the Windows default of C:\Program Files is fairly slim, but stranger things have happened!

How can I get the correct path to Program Files from the system?

Answer 1

You can access the environment variable called: %PROGRAMFILES%

i.e:

%PROGRAMFILES%\Maxis\SimCity

in C#:

System.Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles

Answer 2

.NET provides an enumeration of 'special folders' for Program Files, My Documents, etc.

The code to convert from the enumeration to the actual path looks like this:

Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/14tx8hby.aspx

Answer 3

You would use GetFolderPath in the Environment class.

try {
    Environment.GetFolderPath( Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles )
catch( ArgumentException ex ) {
    Console.Out.WriteLine( ex.StackTrace );
}

Answer 4

Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles) is probably the best solution, but another possible variant is evaluating the value of the ProgramFiles environment variable. For this, you can use the GetEnvironmentVariable or ExpandEnvironmentVariables method of the Environment class:

Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("ProgramFiles")

Environment.ExpandEnvironmentVariables("%ProgramFiles%")

Answer 5

Just to add to this.

If you're running in 32 bit mode (even on a 64 bit os), SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles and %PROGRAMFILES% will return ..Program Files (x86).

If you specifically need one and/or the other then you'll need to check as follows:

32 bit system:

SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles = ..Program Files\

64 bit system in 32 bit process: SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles = ..Program Files (x86)\ Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("ProgramW6432") = ..Program Files\

64 bit system in 64 bit process: SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles = ..Program Files\ Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("PROGRAMFILES(X86)") = ..Program Files (x86)\

Obviously this depends on your locale etc...