Environment.GetFolderPath(...CommonApplicationData) is still returning "C:\Documents and Settings\" on Vista

Question

As I understand it, you're supposed to use the Environment.GetFolderPath method so you have OS independent code...

Windows XP uses C:\Documents and Settings\. Windows Vista uses C:\ProgramData and C:\Users.

I'm using the code below on a Windows Vista computer and it's returning a C:\Documents and Settings\ directory instead of C:\ProgramData like it should... Any ideas?

    string commonAppData = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData);     try     {         File.CreateText(             Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData) +             "\\mycompany\\uid");         log.Debug("Created file successfully");     }     catch (Exception ex)     {         log.Error("Unable to create the uid file: ", ex);     } 

Answer 1

My installer copied a log.txt file which had been generated on an XP computer. I was looking at that log file thinking it was generated on Vista. Once I fixed my log4net configuration to be "Vista Compatible". Environment.GetFolderPath was returning the expected results. Therefore, I'm closing this post.

The following SpecialFolder path reference might be useful:

Output On Windows Server 2003:

 SpecialFolder.ApplicationData: C:\Documents and Settings\blake\Application Data SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles: C:\Program Files SpecialFolder.CommonProgramFiles: C:\Program Files\Common Files SpecialFolder.DesktopDirectory: C:\Documents and Settings\blake\Desktop SpecialFolder.LocalApplicationData: C:\Documents and Settings\blake\Local Settings\Application Data SpecialFolder.MyDocuments: C:\Documents and Settings\blake\My Documents SpecialFolder.System: C:\WINDOWS\system32` 

Output on Vista:

 SpecialFolder.ApplicationData: C:\Users\blake\AppData\Roaming SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData: C:\ProgramData SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles: C:\Program Files SpecialFolder.CommonProgramFiles: C:\Program Files\Common Files SpecialFolder.DesktopDirectory: C:\Users\blake\Desktop SpecialFolder.LocalApplicationData: C:\Users\blake\AppData\Local SpecialFolder.MyDocuments: C:\Users\blake\Documents SpecialFolder.System: C:\Windows\system32