Get the config folder of a third-party Click-Once application

Question

Currently I am messing around with a Click-Once WPF application. That application is some third-party application that was not developed by me. I also do not have access to its sources.

It is run on a Windows server periodically and automatically (using a self made launcher written in standard C++) by executing the corresponding *.appref-ms link that was placed in the start menu path on installation of the application. This works fine.

Due to periodically arising problems with that application my launcher needs to wipe all configuration files before starting it so I get a well defined run at all times. Those files are placed in one of the application's folders. That config path for its settings reads like this (I found it by searching the AppData tree manually):

C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Local\Apps\2.0\Data\WM4WPKCW.P5Z\67QVXD6C.0NT\<app>_f6187a2321850a68_0003.0004_1a67f9f1633c43fc\Data\AppFiles\

Please note that this config path is pretty different from the application path (which uses differently named folders):

C:\Users\<User>\AppData\Local\Apps\2.0\5HN2CKMO.MPL\YOL20MYR.O8L\<app>_f6187a2321850a68_0003.0004_f6ab8c93b3a43b7c\

Since this config path changes on each update of the Click-Once application I need to find it by code (preferably C++) automatically. Unfortunately I could not figure out a way to do this.

How can I make my launcher find the config path of the Click-Once application based on its *.appref-ms file?

How are the configuration files generated? It seems likely that there's an API to get the location if they're generated automatically... — wakjah, Dec 14 '14 at 10:07
For the Click-Once application itself this is surely no problem. But it is a totally different thing to do for an external process. — Silicomancer, Dec 14 '14 at 10:22
doesn't .net have some environment thing. if not then just go down to the windows api level. getmodulefilename. — Cheers and hth. - Alf, Dec 14 '14 at 10:43
what's this "the path to the executeable is obfuscated", what does that mean — Cheers and hth. - Alf, Dec 14 '14 at 10:46
@Alf: path names made from hex numbers with unknown origin and no API to get them — Silicomancer, Dec 14 '14 at 10:49
@Silicomancer: so how is such a path resolved, and how is it generated in the first place. do you have an example. i'm thinking, maybe you're misinterpreting an uuid. — Cheers and hth. - Alf, Dec 14 '14 at 10:51
@Alf: That is part of my question. Seems to be Microsoft's secret. — Silicomancer, Dec 14 '14 at 10:53
well microsoft's alleged obfuscation can't be worse that yours. why not post a real example of such path. change the username if it's present. — Cheers and hth. - Alf, Dec 14 '14 at 11:02
That IS a real path. I only replaced the user name and some elided string (that was obviously derived from the application name in some way) by placeholders (both in angle brackets). — Silicomancer, Dec 14 '14 at 12:54
have you looked at e.g. http://stackoverflow.com/a/14927491/464581 ? Or http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2359026/how-to-get-folder-path-for-clickonce-application ? — Cheers and hth. - Alf, Dec 14 '14 at 13:53

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 14 '14 at 14:05

1

From Raghavendra Prabhu’s blog entry “Client Settings FAQ”:

” If you want to get to the path programmatically, you can do it using the Configuration Management API (you need to add a reference to System.Configuration.dll). For example, here is how you can get the local user.config file path:
Configuration config =  
    ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel.PerUserRoamingAndLocal);
Console.WriteLine("Local user config path: {0}", config.FilePath);

The code is C# (evidently), but shouldn't be that hard to translate to C++/CLI.

Raghavendra Prabhu further writes:

” If you need to store the settings in a different location for some reason, the recommended way is to write your own SettingsProvider. This is fairly simple to implement and you can find samples in the .NET 2.0 SDK that show how to do this. Keep in mind however that you may run into the same isolation issues mentioned above .

Disclaimer: I have not tested any of this.

answered Dec 14 '14 at 14:05

Cheers and hth. - Alf

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I am not the developer of the Click-Once application. I wrote a C++ (non-CLI) launcher that starts some third-party Click-Once application. The only thing my launcher knows about that third-party application is the *.appref-ms file path. Now I need a way to find the actual Click-Once application path using that *.appref-ms file only. Is my question unclear regarding this or is your answer helpful in a way I do not understand? – Silicomancer Dec 14 '14 at 14:16
I edited my questions. Sorry for not asking clearly. I wonder if I should start a new question with the rephrased text. – Silicomancer Dec 14 '14 at 14:33
Oh sorry, I can be a little thick sometimes. Didn't see that it was 3rd party app. Anyway, worth posting the above info, I think, since it can be useful to people getting here via google. – Cheers and hth. - Alf Dec 14 '14 at 16:13

Get the config folder of a third-party Click-Once application

1 Answers1