GetWindowsDirectory() API returns wrong (vba\vb6)

Question

on my Windows-Terminal user, I'm trying to have two application point to the same Windows directory, one written in VBA one in VB6.

When calling the GetWindowsDirectory() API from VB6 it returns the correct path

C:\documents and settings\%user%\Windows

When calling it from VBA macro, it returns

C:\Windows

Notice that same result goes for GetSystemWindowsDirectory()

Thiking may be the VBA code wasn't aware its a Terminal station, I called the GetSystemMetrics(SM_REMOTESESSION) API which returned 1, meaning it is aware that it is a terminal.

The exact same code was used in both VB6 and VBA

Windows 2003R2 , Office version is 2010 64bit (which as i'm typing this, makes me wonder if it's related, knowing vb6 is 32bit ...)

Any ideas ?

EDIT: as explained by IInspectable below, the difference between vba and vb6 is because vb6 is not Terminal-Service-Aware like Office is.

Answer 1

The behavior you are observing is documented. See the Remarks section for GetWindowsDirectory:

Terminal Services: If the application is running in a Terminal Services environment, each user has a private Windows directory. There is also a shared Windows directory for the system. If the application is Terminal-Services-aware (has the IMAGE_DLLCHARACTERISTICS_TERMINAL_SERVER_AWARE flag set in the image header), this function returns the path of the system Windows directory, just as the GetSystemWindowsDirectory function does. Otherwise, it retrieves the path of the private Windows directory for the user.

The DUMPBIN tool with the /HEADERS option can be used to verify, whether the IMAGE_DLLCHARACTERISTICS_TERMINAL_SERVER_AWARE flag is set for a binary.

dumpbin /HEADERS WINWORD.EXE

produces the following output (Microsoft Office 2013 32-bit):

OPTIONAL HEADER VALUES
             10B magic # (PE32)
                 ...
               2 subsystem (Windows GUI)
            8140 DLL characteristics
                   Dynamic base
                   NX compatible
                   Terminal Server Aware
                 ...

In other words: Microsoft Office is Terminal-Services-aware, and calling GetWindowsDirectory from a VBA script hosted inside Microsoft Office will return the shared Windows directory for the system.

If you checked your VB6 application with DUMPBIN, you'll see that it isn't Terminal-Services-aware, and calling GetWindowsDirectory will return the private Windows directory for the user.

---

Additional resources:

• /TSAWARE (Create Terminal Server Aware Application)