How do I get the value of Windows' %APPDATA% location variable in Java?

Question

I'm trying to make my program save its state in the location set by %APPDATA% when the user is using Windows. However, System.getProperty("temp.dir"); does not return that. How do I get the value of the %APPDATA% variable in Windows, for the purpose of state saving?

Possible duplicate http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1198911/how-to-get-local-application-data-folder-in-java — Peter Svensson, Feb 10 '12 at 22:34
Better duplicate is http://stackoverflow.com/questions/585534/what-is-the-best-way-to-find-the-users-home-directory-in-java — Raymond Chen, Feb 11 '12 at 15:04

score 28 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 10 '12 at 22:33

28

Use System.getenv()

System.getenv("APPDATA")

But I think

System.getProperty("user.home")

should be preferred even though it's not exactly the same thing because it is more portable.

answered Feb 10 '12 at 22:33

What happens if you try `System.getenv("APPDATA")` on a non-Windows OS? Given that `APPDATA` is Windows-specific, I would imagine that some error occurs. – DaveTheMinion Dec 21 '16 at 21:18
Great. Thank you! – DaveTheMinion Dec 21 '16 at 23:05
1

if you are trying to get the best native integration with the environment then using the "user.home" property is a poor substitute to (Windows) APPDATA or (Free Desktop) XDG_DATA_HOME XDG_CONFG_HOME – Zixradoom Nov 19 '20 at 18:57

score 9 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 21 '14 at 18:07

9

APPDATA is a Windows specific environment variable that gives you the location where application specific data is stored, so if you are not looking to write platform independent code, you can just do System.getenv("APPDATA");

edited Apr 21 '14 at 18:07

Steve McLeod

51,737
47
128
184

answered Feb 10 '12 at 22:47

IceMan

1,398
16
35

How do I get the value of Windows' %APPDATA% location variable in Java?

2 Answers2

Linked