How do I get the application data path in Windows using C++?

Question

I looked all over the internet and there doesn't seem to be a decent solution that I could find. I want to be able to programmatically in C++ obtain the path "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data" that explorer can translate into a real path.

Can I do this without relying on third-party code?

Answer 1

Use SHGetFolderPath with CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA as the CSIDL.

TCHAR szPath[MAX_PATH];
if (SUCCEEDED(SHGetFolderPath(NULL, CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA, NULL, 0, szPath)))
{
    //....
}

Answer 2

you can also read the value from the registry

path = HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders

key = Common AppData