Programmatically access All Users Start Menu

Question

Does anyone know how to programmatically access the "All Users" Startup Menu?

In XP, located here:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

And in Windows 7, located here:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

Specifically, I've got a Setup and Deployment project, and I'd like to put a shortcut to the application in the Startup menu for all users so that the application is start whenever anyone logs in.

EDIT: I'm pretty sure this is where Brian got his answer from.

Answer 1

There is no constant defined for the normal way of Environment.GetFolderPath for the all users start menu, but you can do it this way by using the Win32 API SHGetSpecialFolderPath:

class Program
{
    [DllImport("shell32.dll")]
    static extern bool SHGetSpecialFolderPath(IntPtr hwndOwner,
       [Out] StringBuilder lpszPath, int nFolder, bool fCreate);
    const int CSIDL_COMMON_STARTMENU = 0x16;  // All Users\Start Menu

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        StringBuilder path = new StringBuilder(260);
        SHGetSpecialFolderPath(IntPtr.Zero, path, CSIDL_COMMON_STARTMENU, false);
        string s = path.ToString();
    }
}

Answer 2

You can also try!

string allUsers=Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("ALLUSERSPROFILE")+ "\\Start Menu\\Programs";

Answer 3

In .NET 4 CommonStartMenu was added to the Environment.SpecialFolder enum, so you can use:

Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonStartMenu)

Answer 4

"All Users" resides in the ALLUSERSPROFILE environment variable:

C:\>dir "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Start Menu"
 Volume in drive C is awesome
 Volume Serial Number is 8C57-DB1A

 Directory of C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu

12/28/2009  10:27 PM    <DIR>          .
12/28/2009  10:27 PM    <DIR>          ..
12/28/2009  10:01 PM             1,566 Microsoft Update.lnk
02/23/2010  09:57 PM    <DIR>          Programs
12/28/2009  10:27 PM             1,563 Set Program Access and Defaults.lnk
12/28/2009  08:51 PM               398 Windows Catalog.lnk
12/28/2009  08:51 PM             1,507 Windows Update.lnk
               4 File(s)          5,034 bytes
               3 Dir(s)  64,214,460,416 bytes free