Obtaining path of users directory

Question

How to get path of Users folder from windows service on MS Vista? I think about path of C:\\Users directory, but it may be different location depend on sys

Answer 1

The best way as @Neil pointed out is to use SHGetKnownFolderPath() with the FOLDERID_UserProfiles. However, c# doesn't have that. But, it's not that hard to invoke it:

using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace SOExample
{
    public class Main
    {
        [DllImport("shell32.dll")]
        static extern int SHGetKnownFolderPath([MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStruct)] Guid rfid, uint dwFlags, IntPtr hToken, out IntPtr pszPath);

        private static string getUserProfilesPath()
        {
            // https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd378457(v=vs.85).aspx#folderid_userprofiles
            Guid UserProfilesGuid = new Guid("0762D272-C50A-4BB0-A382-697DCD729B80");
            IntPtr pPath;
            SHGetKnownFolderPath(UserProfilesGuid, 0, IntPtr.Zero, out pPath);

            string path = System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.PtrToStringUni(pPath);
            System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.FreeCoTaskMem(pPath);
            return path;
        }

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            string path = getUserProfilesPath(); // C:\Users
        }
    }
}