Question

From Visual C++, how do I get the path to the current user’s My Documents folder?

Edit:

I have this:

TCHAR my_documents[MAX_PATH];
HRESULT result = SHGetFolderPath(NULL, CSIDL_MYDOCUMENTS, NULL, SHGFP_TYPE_CURRENT, my_documents);

However, result is coming back with a value of E_INVALIDARG. Any thoughts as to why this might be?

Answer 1

It depends on how old of a system you need compatibility with. For old systems, there’s SHGetSpecialFolderPath. For somewhat newer systems, there’s SHGetFolderPath. Starting with Vista, there’s SHGetKnownFolderPath.

Here’s some demo code that works, at least on my machine:

#include <windows.h>
#include <iostream>
#include <shlobj.h>

#pragma comment(lib, "shell32.lib")

int main() { 
    CHAR my_documents[MAX_PATH];
    HRESULT result = SHGetFolderPath(NULL, CSIDL_PERSONAL, NULL, SHGFP_TYPE_CURRENT, my_documents);

    if (result != S_OK)
        std::cout << "Error: " << result << "\n";
    else
        std::cout << "Path: " << my_documents << "\n";
    return 0;
}