Question

I am calling CreateFile() to create a file in the Program Data directory. I’m using SHGetSpecialFolderPath() to get the dir name.

I have a user with Vista for whom CreateFile() is returning error 5 (Access Denied). It would help if I knew where CreateFile() was actually attempting to create the file so we can check his folder permissions. The problem with Vista (UAC) is, it’s not attempting to create the file in the directory I passed in. It could also be in a VirtualStore directory. An added source of confusion is this user is German and although SHGetSpecialFolderPath() is returning ‘C:\Program Data\blah blah’ as the path, I don’t think that’s actually where the path is. I think German Vista uses the German word for ‘Program Data’. I would like to be able to tell the user ‘This is the exact path where we are trying to create the file. Check your permissions on this folder.’

I know you can get the a path from an open file handle, but in this case the CreateFile() is failing so I don’t have an open handle. How can I get Vista to tell me the actual path where it’s attempting to create the file?

Answer 1

Fire up Process Monitor and watch what it does: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx