Where on the filesystem should a Windows service persist its data?

Question

I'm writing a Windows service which needs to persist some data across reboots/restarts of the service. Currently I'm writing the files in a directory returned by Application.UserAppDataPath, but that doesn't seem to be giving me a consistent answer. How should I determine the right place to write the data?

Answer 1

It depends if your service is running with the system account or with a specific user account.

• System account. Store the files in the CommonApplicationData folder:

  string pathForSystem = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData);

• User account. Store the files in the ApplicationData folder:

  string pathForUser = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData);

Answer 2

If you want it to be consistent (i.e. user agnostic) try Application.CommonAppDataPath.