Winapi: programatically obtain path of special folder given its CLSID as string

Question

Does Windows API offer any way to obtain a special folder path (i.e. My Documents), given its CLSID as string (i.e. ::{450d8fba-ad25-11d0-98a8-0800361b1103})? Can this be done in any way? Also, it should be done with functions supported under Windows XP.

Thank you in advance.

What is that GUID? CLSIDs identify COM classes. Is that a known folder ID? Please elaborate. — David Heffernan, Oct 08 '14 at 18:33
I know, it is confusing to me too since CLSIDs identify COM classes as you said. It's a string that identifies a Windows special folder, there's a list of them here: http://www.thewindowsclub.com/the-secret-behind-the-windows-7-godmode. If you paste that string in the run dialog (Ctrl+R) it will open "My Documents" folder. Windows is resolving it to a path in some way and i'd like to know how it can be done — Sekoraiko, Oct 08 '14 at 18:38
I'm developing a program that receives the path to a directory as parameter. Such path can be given as a full qualified path (i.e. "C:\Users\admin\Documents\Projects"), or using one of those guids (i.e. "::{450d8fba-ad25-11d0-98a8-0800361b1103}\Projects"). If the path is provided in the second form, I need to be capable of translating it to its full path. — Sekoraiko, Oct 08 '14 at 18:50

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 08 '14 at 19:47

The fundamental API you need for this is SHParseDisplayName. That will take the ::{GUID} format path and convert it to a PIDL.

If the PIDL then has a string form (as your example does, since it resolves to the Documents folder), you can use SHGetPathFromIDList to convert it.

LPITEMIDLIST pidl;
if (SUCCEEDED(SHParseDisplayName(L"::{450d8fba-ad25-11d0-98a8-0800361b1103}", nullptr, &pidl, 0, nullptr)))
{
    wchar_t wchPath[MAX_PATH];
    if (SUCCEEDED(SHGetPathFromIDList(pidl, wchPath)))
    {
        // string form of path is now in wchPath
    }
    ILFree(pidl);
}

Winapi: programatically obtain path of special folder given its CLSID as string

1 Answers1