Find the path of notepad.exe and mspaint.exe

Question

What is the best way to find out where notepad.exe and mspaint.exe are that will work across various versions of Windows?

Should I get the Windows directory via SHGetFol

Answer 1

In short I find that the best approach is to check the Windows\System32 directory and the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths registry keys.

More generally I find that the best approach is to mimic ShellExecuteEx.

Taken from:
Application Registration (Windows)
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ee872121(v=vs.85).aspx

The file is sought in the following locations:
•The current working directory.
•The Windows directory only (no subdirectories are searched).
•The Windows\System32 directory.
•Directories listed in the PATH environment variable.
•Recommended: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths

A further possibly is to check Start Menu\Programs\Accessories, by using SHGetFolderPath with CSIDL_STARTMENU := 11 and CSIDL_COMMON_STARTMENU := 22, and retrieve the targets from the lnk files.