Locating the Standard Folders Where Data Belongs

[This is preliminary documentation and subject to change.]

For many standard folders, a qualified path can be obtained by calling SHGetSpecialFolderLocation with an appropriate CSIDL constant (CSIDL constants are defined in ShlObj.h, a Windows header file). The following standard folders are accessible in this way.

Standard Folder	CSIDL Constant Name	Hex

Alternate Startup (All Users; DBCS)	`CSIDL_COMMON_ALTSTARTUP`	`0x1e`
Alternate Startup (user's; DBCS)	`CSIDL_ALTSTARTUP`	`0x1d`
Application Data (user's profile)	`CSIDL_APPDATA`	`0x1a`
Control Panel virtual folder	`CSIDL_CONTROLS`	`0x03`
Cookies folder	`CSIDL_COOKIES`	`0x21`
Desktop (namespace root)	`CSIDL_DESKTOP`	`0x00`
Desktop folder ("All Users" profile)	`CSIDL_COMMON_DESKTOPDIRECTORY`	`0x19`
Desktop folder (user's profile)	`CSIDL_DESKTOPDIRECTORY`	`0x10`
Favorites folder (All Users profile)	`CSIDL_COMMON_FAVORITES`	`0x1f`
Favorites folder (user's profile)	`CSIDL_FAVORITES`	`0x06`
Fonts virtual folder	`CSIDL_FONTS`	`0x14`
History folder	`CSIDL_HISTORY`	`0x22`
Internet Cache folder	`CSIDL_INTERNET_CACHE`	`0x20`
Internet virtual folder	`CSIDL_INTERNET`	`0x01`
My Computer virtual folder	`CSIDL_DRIVES`	`0x11`
My Documents folder (user's)	`CSIDL_PERSONAL`	`0x05`
Network Neighborhood root	`CSIDL_NETWORK`	`0x12`
Network Neighborhood directory	`CSIDL_NETHOOD`	`0x13`
Personal folder (user's profile)	`CSIDL_PERSONAL`	`0x05`
Printers virtual folder	`CSIDL_PRINTERS`	`0x04`
PrintHood folder (user's profile)	`CSIDL_PRINTHOOD`	`0x1b`
Programs folder (under Start Menu in "All Users" profile)	`CSIDL_COMMON_PROGRAMS`	`0X17`
Programs folder (under Start Menu in user's profile)	`CSIDL_PROGRAMS`	`0x02`
Recent folder (user's profile)	`CSIDL_RECENT`	`0x08`
Recycle Bin folder	`CSIDL_BITBUCKET`	`0x0a`
SendTo folder (user's profile)	`CSIDL_SENDTO`	`0x09`
Start Menu ("All Users" profile)	`CSIDL_COMMON_STARTMENU`	`0x16`
Start Menu (user's profile)	`CSIDL_STARTMENU`	`0x0b`
Startup folder ("All Users" profile)	`CSIDL_COMMON_STARTUP`	`0x18`
Startup folder (user's profile)	`CSIDL_STARTUP`	`0x07`
Templates folder (user's profile)	`CSIDL_TEMPLATES`	`0x15`

Other standard folders can also be located using the following environment variables.

Standard Folder or Location	Environment Variable
System drive	%SystemDrive%
System root directory	%SystemRoot%
Windows folder	%windir%
Program Files folder	%ProgramFiles%
User's profile folder	%UserProfile%
Temporary folder (per user)	%Temp%

Access to specific user profile folders such as My Documents or Application Data should be obtained through SHGetSpecialFolderLocation rather than by relying on a combination of an environment variable and the standard English folder name (such as %UserProfile%\Application Data\).