Get folder location for windows dynamically in python 3.5

Question

I am creating a small script that removes unwanted browser trackers from the C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache location. The problem is I cant seem to get to AppData\Local.

when running this:

os.getenv('APPDATA')

I get this output: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming

I need to remove \Roaming so that i can get lower in the \Local tree. How do I dynamically get to the above location exclusively on windows 10 and 7 using python 3.5?

this may help you: [Link](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1038824/how-do-i-remove-a-substring-from-the-end-of-a-string-in-python) — SMFSW, Mar 30 '17 at 16:05
you can store the result of your code line in a var, then do: var.replace('Roaming', ''), then you can add the rest of the path needed — SMFSW, Mar 30 '17 at 16:07

mgilson · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-30T20:31:08.090

1

It seems like you should be able to do this using os.path.dirname:

roaming = os.getenv('APPDATA')
app_data = os.path.dirname(roaming)

If you can't be sure to trust the environment variable, but are sure that the path you want will always end in AppData, then you can keep removing path parts until you find the part you want:

app_data = os.getenv('APPDATA')
while app_data and not app_data.endswith('AppData'):
    app_data = os.path.dirname(app_data)

edited Mar 30 '17 at 20:31

answered Mar 30 '17 at 16:02

mgilson

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@Schmuddi -- Sure. For some reason, my fingers have an aversion to typing `dirname` and always want to type `basename` instead :-). – mgilson Mar 30 '17 at 16:06
this is exactly what i needed Thanks – M4dW0r1d Mar 30 '17 at 16:19
The variable is `LOCALAPPDATA` for the local application data. `APPDATA` is the roaming data, which is more generally used. – Eryk Sun Mar 30 '17 at 17:15
@eryksun -- Well, I guess that shows how much I know about Windows environments ;-) – mgilson Mar 30 '17 at 20:31

Get folder location for windows dynamically in python 3.5

1 Answers1