How do I find the Windows common application data folder using Python?

Question

I would like my application to store some data for access by all users. Using Python, how can I find where the data should go?

Answer 1

From http://snipplr.com/view.php?codeview&id=7354

homedir = os.path.expanduser('~')

# ...works on at least windows and linux. 
# In windows it points to the user's folder 
#  (the one directly under Documents and Settings, not My Documents)


# In windows, you can choose to care about local versus roaming profiles.
# You can fetch the current user's through PyWin32.
#
# For example, to ask for the roaming 'Application Data' directory:
#  (CSIDL_APPDATA asks for the roaming, CSIDL_LOCAL_APPDATA for the local one)
#  (See microsoft references for further CSIDL constants)
try:
    from win32com.shell import shellcon, shell            
    homedir = shell.SHGetFolderPath(0, shellcon.CSIDL_APPDATA, 0, 0)

except ImportError: # quick semi-nasty fallback for non-windows/win32com case
    homedir = os.path.expanduser("~")

To get the app-data directory for all users, rather than the current user, just use shellcon.CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA instead of shellcon.CSIDL_APPDATA.