Windows user home folder in C (MinGW)

Question

I'm trying to port an application written in C from linux to windows.

At the moment I'm done fixing the 'hard' parts like missing posix features and the like.

The application compiles, links and works on Windows now (except for the fork() stuff which will be replaced with windows service code later).

The only problem I'm having now is that within the MSYS shell it all works (this maps unix paths for me).

Outside of the MSYS shell it won't work because ~ is not available.

I'm looking for the best way to set the windows user home within my #ifdef stuff.

I read about %USERPROFILE% somewhere but that doesn't seem to work.

Answer 1

Use SHGetKnownFolderPath (Vista+) or SHGetFolderPath depending on your Windows version.

Answer 2

I think you should use the SHGetFolderLocation API: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb762180%28VS.85%29.aspx well not enought, you should even retrieve the ID of the user folder, but by starting at the doc location above you should have all what you neeed. This should works on any windows version.