Setting the Initial Directory of an Savefiledialog

Setting the initial directory of an SaveFileDialog?

You need to set the RestoreDirectory to true as well as the InitialDirectory property.

SaveFileDialog InitialDirectory

Have a look at this article about String literals

You should either use double back slashes if you want one backslash

saveFileDialog1.InitialDirectory = "W:\\etc\\etc\\";

or use the @ sign:

saveFileDialog1.InitialDirectory = @"W:\etc\etc\";

Also you should set the RestoreDirectory in order to set the working directory back to your application directory.
Check this link for reference

saveFileDialog1.RestoreDirectory = true;

SaveFileDialog Initial Directory Doesnt work C# Visual Studio

You are setting initial directory for sfd instance of SaveFileDialog which you are creating locally:

SaveFileDialog sfd = new SaveFileDialog();
sfd.InitialDirectory = @"C:\\";

But you are opening saveFileDialog1 instance which is form's field:

if (saveFileDialog1.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)

Of course, it uses default initial directory. You should either change settings of saveFileDialog1 or use sfd.ShowDialog()

Validating InitialDirectory for SaveFileDialog?

The quick and easy way to fix it would be to get the full path:

dialog.InitialDirectory = Path.GetFullPath(initialDirectory);

This will expand relative paths to the absolute ones that the SaveFileDialog expects. This will expand just about anything that resembles a path into a full, rooted path. This includes things like "/" (turns into the root of whatever drive the current folder is set to) and "" (turns into the current folder).

How do I set the Initial Directory on an OpenFileDIalog to the users `Downloads` folder in C#

Maybe this could help: https://stackoverflow.com/a/1175250/333404

UPDATE:

Works for me:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/3795159/333404

  private void Button_Click_1(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) {
            var ofd = new OpenFileDialog();
            ofd.InitialDirectory = GetDownloadsPath();
            ofd.Filter = "Zip Files|*.zip";
            ofd.ShowDialog();
        }

        public static string GetDownloadsPath() {
            string path = null;
            if (Environment.OSVersion.Version.Major >= 6) {
                IntPtr pathPtr;
                int hr = SHGetKnownFolderPath(ref FolderDownloads, 0, IntPtr.Zero, out pathPtr);
                if (hr == 0) {
                    path = Marshal.PtrToStringUni(pathPtr);
                    Marshal.FreeCoTaskMem(pathPtr);
                    return path;
                }
            }
            path = Path.GetDirectoryName(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Personal));
            path = Path.Combine(path, "Downloads");
            return path;
        }

        private static Guid FolderDownloads = new Guid("374DE290-123F-4565-9164-39C4925E467B");
        [DllImport("shell32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
        private static extern int SHGetKnownFolderPath(ref Guid id, int flags, IntPtr token, out IntPtr path);

If initial directory doesn't exist, create it, but if user cancel the save, delete the newly added folders

This worked for me when I tested it.

    SaveFileDialog sfd = new SaveFileDialog();
    sfd.DefaultExt = "txt";
    sfd.Filter = ".TXT (*.txt)|*.txt";
    sfd.FileName = textBox1.Text;

    string mypath = System.Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Desktop) + "\\FolderExistingOrNot";
    Directory.CreateDirectory(mypath);

    sfd.InitialDirectory = mypath;
    //Directory.CreateDirectory(sfd.InitialDirectory); // could use that but if the user cancel, this folder will not be destroyed
    if (sfd.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
    {
        File.WriteAllText(sfd.FileName, textBox2.Text);
    }
    else // if the user cancel the saving
    {
        if (Directory.GetFiles(mypath).Length == 0)
        {
            Directory.Delete(mypath);
        }
    }

How to set a path for savefiledialog

You have to set InitialDirectory before you're showing your dialog.

SaveFileDialog1.InitialDirectory = "C:\Users\owner\Downloads"
SaveFileDialog1.ShowDialog()

Find out last directory of SaveFileDialog

The path comes from the registry -

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Comdlg32\LastVisitedPidlMRU

or for older Windows OS
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Comdlg32\OpenSaveMRU

Also note what @Jimi mentioned about the RestoreDirectory property.

Edit: I had initially thought that the regkey/value was just a unicode string but it is not so straight forward to use. So reconsider this approach. If you really need to figure out how the keys work I suggest you take a look at - https://github.com/aelij/svcperf/blob/master/src/Viewer/UIUtils/MruFileHelper.cs

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