Should I use AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory or System.Environment.CurrentDirectory?

Question

I have two exe files in the same folder, I can run exe2 from a button in exe1. Today I was observing a customer over a remote (terminal services) session and exe2 failed to

Answer 1

You should use AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory.

For example in a windows services application:

System.Environment.CurrentDirectory will return C:\Windows\system32

While

AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory will return [Application.exe location]

Another important factor to note is that AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory is a readonly property while the Environment.CurrentDirectory can be something else if necessary:

// Change the directory to AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory
Environment.CurrentDirectory = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory;