What's the difference between SpecialFolder.Desktop and SpecialFolder.DesktopDirectory?

Question

I\'m confused about the differences between these two special folders.

Here\'s a code snippet that writes the output of each, but they output the same thing.

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Answer 1

A directory is a location in the file system. A folder is a location in the shell namespace. A directory is a kind of folder. A virtual folder is not necessarily backed by a directory. For example consider libraries or search folders.

The user's desktop directory is a location in the file system. The desktop folder merges that with virtual items like all users items, recycle bin, shortcut to documents folder etc.