The location of the% allusersprofile% folder in Windows Vista?

Question

What is the exact path to the% allusersprofile% folder in Windows Vista? On some systems, I saw a folder as "c: \ Users \ All Users", on which it maps to "C: \ ProgramData", and on others, it maps to "C: \ Users \ Public".

If you can provide a link to the documentation for Microsoft documentation, then it will be very useful (so far I have not been able to dig out the link).

Edit: Registry settings determine the location of the folder. I'm looking more for how Windows interprets / defines these folders during installation? What is the default location of this folder as defined in Microsoft Windows Vista?

Answer 1

This MSDN document shows new methods in Vista to find known folders, including those that you specify specifically: "C:\Documents and Settings" .

I understand that this can be changed simply by changing the registry (and moving the current directory).

Answer 2

Why does it bother you? Just use the environment variable (or KnownFolderId , which is guaranteed to work forever.

Microsoft may decide tomorrow to move the directory to another location - as long as you continue to use the environment variable, you will be fine.

If you adjust the value, your code will be broken in the future.

Answer 3

I found that this place in a special folder is sometimes confused. I created a sheet comparing the location of folders in Windows XP and Vista. This may be helpful for you. Here is the link.