Folder Locations

Certain folders have special meanings for the shell. An application can use shell functions to retrieve the locations of these special folders and to enable the user to browse for specific folders.

Some special folders are virtual folders so called because they are not actual directories on any storage device, local or remote. Virtual folders like the desktop folder, the My Computer folder, and the Network Neighborhood folder make a unified namespace possible by serving as containers for any number of storage devices and network resources. Other virtual folders contain file objects, such as printers, that are not part of the file system.

File system directories that the shell uses for specific purposes are also considered special folders. Examples include the Programs folder (which contains the user's program groups) and the desktop directory (which is used to physically store files that have been copied to the desktop folder). The locations of special file system folders are stored in the registry under the HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Software / Microsoft / Windows / CurrentVersion / Explorer / Shell Folders key.

You can use the SHGetSpecialFolderLocation function to retrieve the location of a special folder, which can be virtual or part of the file system. The function returns a PIDL, which the application must eventually free using the shell's allocator. If the folder is part of the file system, you can convert the PIDL to a file system path by using the SHGetPathFromIDList function. For a list of special folders, see the description of the SHGetSpecialFolderLocation function.

To display a dialog box that enables the user to browse for a folder, you can use the SHBrowseForFolder function. An application might use this function to prompt the user for a directory or remote computer. This function can also be used to browse for network printers, even though printers are not considered folders. An application can specify the root folder to browse from. For example, to prompt the user for a program group, you might call SHBrowseForFolder specifying the PIDL for the Programs folder as the root.

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