Accessing application data folder path for all Windows users

Question

How do I find the application data folder path for all Windows users from C#?

How do I find this for the current user and other Windows users?

score 12 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 22 '10 at 08:57

12

Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData and Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData

answered Jun 22 '10 at 08:57

Sergej Andrejev

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+1 for special folder; @Hema: See, http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.environment.specialfolder.aspx – KMån Jun 22 '10 at 10:33
`Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData` gives ROAMING user's folder. – Yousha Aleayoub May 17 '20 at 13:33

score 11 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 27 '10 at 09:01

11

This will give you the path to the "All users" application data folder.

string path = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData);

answered Sep 27 '10 at 09:01

hultqvist

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This path only provides read access if you need read/write access check this link:http://www.codeproject.com/Tips/61987/Allow-write-modify-access-to-CommonApplicationData – mas_oz2k1 May 12 '12 at 23:48
This is not what asked for. This path requires elevated rights to write. – AFgone Jul 13 '19 at 20:32

score 7 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 15 '14 at 19:46

Adapted from @Derrick's answer. The following code will find the path to Local AppData for each user on the computer and put the paths in a List of strings.

        const string regKeyFolders = @"HKEY_USERS\<SID>\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders";
        const string regValueAppData = @"Local AppData";
        string[] keys = Registry.Users.GetSubKeyNames();
        List<String> paths = new List<String>();

        foreach (string sid in keys)
        {
            string appDataPath = Registry.GetValue(regKeyFolders.Replace("<SID>", sid), regValueAppData, null) as string;
            if (appDataPath != null)
            {
                paths.Add(appDataPath);
            }
        }

This will only find users that are currently logged in at the time you run this code. If you want to find app data for all of the users that ever logged into a given machine you will have to first determine all of the users that have logged into the given machine and then individually load the individual registry hives of each user to obtain the path name of each user's appdata directory. Of course you have to have elevated privileges to load user registry hives. — CodeWhore, Nov 14 '22 at 23:35

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 25 '14 at 00:55

The AppData folder for each user is stored in the registry.

Using this path:

const string regKeyFolders = @"HKEY_USERS\<SID>\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders";
const string regValueAppData = @"AppData";

Given a variable sid string containing the users sid, you can get their AppData path like this:

string path=Registry.GetValue(regKeyFolders.Replace("<SID>", sid), regValueAppData, null) as string;

Accessing application data folder path for all Windows users

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