How to resolve location of %UserProfile% programatically in C++?

Question

I'd like to find the directory of the current user profile programatically in C++.

Answer 1

SHGetSpecialFolderLocation is the best way to get at most of the special paths on Windows. Passed CSIDL_PROFILE it should retrieve the folder you are interested in.

If you are actually interested in the contents of the %UserProfile% environment variable you could try ExpandEnvironmentStrings

Answer 2

see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/631664/accessing-environment-variables-in-c

Answer 3

To cover all user profile scenarios in Windows Vista and up there is SHGetKnownFolderPath. Here is the link to the docs page on it and related functions.