Executable directory where application is running from?

Question

I need to get the path (not the executable) where my application is running from:

System.AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory() 

When I run the above statement with & "/images/image.jpg" on my local machine it works fine but when I install the application on another machine it says it cannot find the file and there is a lot of extra path information some.

I just need the directory of where the app is running. I am coding in VB.NET with Visual Studio 2008.

Thanks!

Answer 1

This is the first post on google so I thought I'd post different ways that are available and how they compare. Unfortunately I can't figure out how to create a table here, so it's an image. The code for each is below the image using fully qualified names.

My.Application.Info.DirectoryPath  Environment.CurrentDirectory  System.Windows.Forms.Application.StartupPath  AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory  System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly.Location  System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly.CodeBase  New System.UriBuilder(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly.CodeBase)  Path.GetDirectoryName(Uri.UnescapeDataString((New System.UriBuilder(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly.CodeBase).Path)))  Uri.UnescapeDataString((New System.UriBuilder(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly.CodeBase).Path)) 

--- Edit October 18, 2021:

Sigh... None of the above work if using net5.0 or net6.0 and publishing app as single-file bundle. Best I got now is:

// This will give you the directory but not the assembly string basedir = AppContext.BaseDirectory; // Before you package the app as a single file bundle, you will get the dll.   // But after you publish it, you'll get the exe.  string pathToExecutable = Environment.GetCommandLineArgs()[0].Replace(".dll", ".exe"); 

Answer 2

Dim strPath As String = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName( _     System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().CodeBase) 

Taken from HOW TO: Determine the Executing Application's Path (MSDN)