SHGetFolderPath function

Deprecated. Gets the path of a folder identified by a CSIDL value.

Note  As of Windows Vista, this function is merely a wrapper for SHGetKnownFolderPath. The CSIDL value is translated to its associated KNOWNFOLDERID and then SHGetKnownFolderPath is called. New applications should use the known folder system rather than the older CSIDL system, which is supported only for backward compatibility.

Syntax

HRESULT SHGetFolderPath(
  _In_   HWND hwndOwner,
  _In_   int nFolder,
  _In_   HANDLE hToken,
  _In_   DWORD dwFlags,
  _Out_  LPTSTR pszPath
);

Parameters

hwndOwner [in]

Type: HWND

Reserved.

nFolder [in]

Type: int

A CSIDL value that identifies the folder whose path is to be retrieved. Only real folders are valid. If a virtual folder is specified, this function fails. You can force creation of a folder by combining the folder's CSIDL with CSIDL_FLAG_CREATE.

hToken [in]

Type: HANDLE

An access token that can be used to represent a particular user.

Microsoft Windows 2000 and earlier: Always set this parameter to NULL.

Windows XP and later: This parameter is usually set to NULL, but you might need to assign a non-NULL value to hToken for those folders that can have multiple users but are treated as belonging to a single user. The most commonly used folder of this type is Documents.

The calling process is responsible for correct impersonation when hToken is non-NULL. The calling process must have appropriate security privileges for the particular user, including TOKEN_QUERY and TOKEN_IMPERSONATE, and the user's registry hive must be currently mounted. See Access Control for further discussion of access control issues.

Assigning the hToken parameter a value of -1 indicates the Default User. This enables clients of SHGetFolderPath to find folder locations (such as the Desktop folder) for the Default User. The Default User user profile is duplicated when any new user account is created, and includes special folders such as My Documents and Desktop. Any items added to the Default User folder also appear in any new user account.

dwFlags [in]

Type: DWORD

Flags that specify the path to be returned. This value is used in cases where the folder associated with a KNOWNFOLDERID (or CSIDL) can be moved, renamed, redirected, or roamed across languages by a user or administrator.

The known folder system that underlies SHGetFolderPath allows users or administrators to redirect a known folder to a location that suits their needs. This is achieved by calling IKnownFolderManager::Redirect, which sets the "current" value of the folder associated with the SHGFP_TYPE_CURRENT flag.

The default value of the folder, which is the location of the folder if a user or administrator had not redirected it elsewhere, is retrieved by specifying the SHGFP_TYPE_DEFAULT flag. This value can be used to implement a "restore defaults" feature for a known folder.

For example, the default value (SHGFP_TYPE_DEFAULT) for FOLDERID_Music (CSIDL_MYMUSIC) is "C:\Users\user name\Music". If the folder was redirected, the current value (SHGFP_TYPE_CURRENT) might be "D:\Music". If the folder has not been redirected, then SHGFP_TYPE_DEFAULT and SHGFP_TYPE_CURRENT retrieve the same path.

SHGFP_TYPE_CURRENT

Retrieve the folder's current path.

SHGFP_TYPE_DEFAULT

Retrieve the folder's default path.

pszPath [out]

Type: LPTSTR

A pointer to a null-terminated string of length MAX_PATH which will receive the path. If an error occurs or S_FALSE is returned, this string will be empty. The returned path does not include a trailing backslash. For example, "C:\Users" is returned rather than "C:\Users\".

Return value

Type: HRESULT

Returns S_OK if successful, or an error value otherwise, including the following.

Remarks

This function is a superset of SHGetSpecialFolderPath, included with earlier versions of the Shell. On systems that preceded those that include Shell32.dll version 5.0 (Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me) and Windows 2000), SHGetFolderPath was obtained through SHFolder.dll, distributed with Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 and later versions. SHFolder.dll always calls the current platform's version of this function. If that fails, it tries to simulate the appropriate behavior. SHFolder.dll continues to be included for backward compatibility, but the function is now implemented in Shell32.dll.

Note  On older systems that require the redistributable SHFolder.dll, you must explicitly link to SHFolder.lib before you link to Shell32.lib.

Only some CSIDL values are supported, including the following:

• CSIDL_ADMINTOOLS
• CSIDL_APPDATA
• CSIDL_COMMON_ADMINTOOLS
• CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA
• CSIDL_COMMON_DOCUMENTS
• CSIDL_COOKIES
• CSIDL_FLAG_CREATE
• CSIDL_FLAG_DONT_VERIFY
• CSIDL_HISTORY
• CSIDL_INTERNET_CACHE
• CSIDL_LOCAL_APPDATA
• CSIDL_MYPICTURES
• CSIDL_PERSONAL
• CSIDL_PROGRAM_FILES
• CSIDL_PROGRAM_FILES_COMMON
• CSIDL_SYSTEM
• CSIDL_WINDOWS

Examples

The following code example uses SHGetFolderPath to find or create a folder and then creates a file in it.

TCHAR szPath[MAX_PATH];

if(SUCCEEDED(SHGetFolderPath(NULL, 
                             CSIDL_PERSONAL|CSIDL_FLAG_CREATE, 
                             NULL, 
                             0, 
                             szPath))) 
{
    PathAppend(szPath, TEXT("New Doc.txt"));
    HANDLE hFile = CreateFile(szPath, ...);
}

Requirements

See also

IKnownFolder::GetPath

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Build date: 11/28/2012