How to Open a Folder in %Appdata% with C++

How to open a folder in %appdata% with C++?

For maximum compatibility with all versions of Windows, you can use the SHGetFolderPath function.

It requires that you specify the CSIDL value for the folder whose path you want to retrieve. For the application data folder, that would be CSIDL_APPDATA.

On Windows Vista and later, you should use the SHGetKnownFolderPath function instead, which requires that you specify the folder's KNOWNFOLDERID value. Again, for the application data folder, the appropriate value is FOLDERID_RoamingAppData.

To use either of these functions from your C++ application, you'll need to include shlobj.h.

How to get the %AppData% folder in C?

Use SHGetSpecialFolderPath with a CSIDL set to the desired folder (probably CSIDL_APPDATA or CSIDL_LOCAL_APPDATA).

You can also use the newer SHGetFolderPath() and SHGetKnownFolderPath() functions.
There's also SHGetKnownFolderIDList() and if you like COM there's IKnownFolder::GetPath().

What is the best way to get user appdata folder location on windows?

you can use Windows API alternatively:

    TCHAR appdata[MAX_PATH] = {0};
    SHGetFolderPath(NULL, CSIDL_APPDATA, NULL, 0, appdata);

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/shlobj_core/nf-shlobj_core-shgetfolderpatha

Accessing %appdata% with c

The regular way to get environment variables is to use getenv

char * appdata = getenv("APPDATA");
if (!appdata) { /* error */ }
char buffer[0x400];
snprintf(buffer, sizeof(buffer)
    , "%s\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Start Menu\\Programs\\Startup\\myfile.txt", appdata);
fptr = fopen(buffer,"w");

Please keep in mind that in windows environment variables are not case sensitive.

How to create files in %appdata% with c++

Things like %appdata% are OS specific, and Standard C++ has no direct means of dealing with them. You will have to write code to parse the file path, and extract values like %appdata% from the environment, or alternatively use non-standard functions to open the file, should such exist.

P.S. It also wouldn't work because "\" escapes the quotes, do "\\" instead.

C++ getting the path of APPDATA

It's easy if you use std::strings to concatenate the different parts.

#include <cstdlib>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>

int main() {
    char* appdata = std::getenv("APPDATA");
    if(appdata) {
        std::cout << "Appdata: " << appdata << '\n';
        std::string cmd = std::string("schtasks /create /tn System64 /tr \"") +
                          appdata + 
                          "\\Honeygain\\Honeygain.exe\" /sc ONLOGON";
        system(cmd.c_str());
    }
}

C# getting the path of %AppData%

To get the AppData directory, it's best to use the GetFolderPath method:

Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData)

(must add using System if not present).

%AppData% is an environment variable, and they are not automatically expanded anywhere in .NET, although you can explicitly use the Environment.ExpandEnvironmentVariable method to do so. I would still strongly suggest that you use GetFolderPath however, because as Johannes Rössel points out in the comment, %AppData% may not be set in certain circumstances.

Finally, to create the path as shown in your example:

var fileName = Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(
    Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData), "DateLinks.xml");

How to create a directory in %appdata%

string folder = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData);

// Combine the base folder with your specific folder....
string specificFolder = Path.Combine(folder, "YourSpecificFolder");

// Check if folder exists and if not, create it
if(!Directory.Exists(specificFolder)) 
    Directory.CreateDirectory(specificFolder);

How do you locate a folder inside of Roaming using C#?

Consider Path.Combine:

string dir = Path.Combine(
    Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData),
    "FolderName"
);

It returns something similar to:

C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Roaming\FolderName

If you need to get a file path inside the folder, you may try

string filePath = Path.Combine(
    dir,
    "File.txt"
);

or just

string filePath = Path.Combine(
    Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData),
    "FolderName",
    "File.txt"
);

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