retrieving the default personal folders file path

vijay_aroli

Hello everyone, i wanted to know if there is any way to retrieve the default personal folders file path?

Regards, Vijay. God may not give us what we 'want', but he surely gives us what we 'need'.

prasad_som

Prasad MS MVP - VC++

Paresh Chitte

Try using SHGetFolderLocation, SHGetFolderPath, SHGetSpecialFolderLocation, SHGetSpecialFolderPath with CSIDL_PERSONAL. Regards, Paresh.

vijay_aroli

well, i am sorry that i was not clear in asking what exactly i wanted. actually i am working on something that is related to Microsoft Outlook. All the outlook items are stored in a file called 'outlook' with '.pst' extension. That file is stored in a folder called 'Outlook' whose path is as shown below: C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook and i want to access that path programatically. i wanted to know if there is any function that does that for me.

Regards, Vijay. God may not give us what we 'want', but he surely gives us what we 'need'.

Paresh Chitte

Try using CSIDL_APPDATA with SHGetFolderPath. Refer this[^] for more information. I hope this will surve your purpose. Regards, Paresh.

vijay_aroli

I can see that no CSIDL value takes me to the outlook folder. i would like to know if there are any. else i may have to do something on my own to construct the path. Anyways, thanks for all the help. :)

Regards, Vijay. God may not give us what we 'want', but he surely gives us what we 'need'.

David Crow

vijay7173 wrote:

I can see that no CSIDL value takes me to the outlook folder.

Of course not, because it's application-specific.

vijay7173 wrote:

i would like to know if there are any. else i may have to do something on my own to construct the path.

Use CSIDL_APPDATA to get you down to C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Application Data, and then hard-code the rest.

"Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed" - 2 Timothy 2:15

"To have a respect for ourselves guides our morals; to have deference for others governs our manners." - Laurence Sterne

vijay_aroli

DavidCrow wrote:

Of course not, because it's application-specific.

sorry sir, i assumed the default Outlook folder to be one of the special folders and hence expected a built-in function for retriving the path to that folder. Thanks for the info. :)

DavidCrow wrote:

Use CSIDL_APPDATA to get you down to C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Application Data

No. The CSIDL_APPDATA will take us to C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data. Instead, I need to use CSIDL_LOCAL_APPDATA which will take me down to C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Application Data.

DavidCrow wrote:

and then hard-code the rest

yes, thats exactly what i have done now :) And also, i used SHGetSpecialFolderPath() instead of SHGetFolderPath(). i dont know why, but SHGetFolderPath() did not work for me in a dialog based application though it worked fine in Console based application. -- modified at 2:23 Wednesday 18th April, 2007

Regards, Vijay. God may not give us what we 'want', but he surely gives us what we 'need'.

David Crow

vijay7173 wrote:

And also, i used SHGetSpecialFolderPath() instead of SHGetFolderPath().

With Windows 2000, SHGetSpecialFolderPath() was superseded by ShGetFolderPath().

"Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed" - 2 Timothy 2:15

"To have a respect for ourselves guides our morals; to have deference for others governs our manners." - Laurence Sterne