How To Use the SHGetKnownFolderPath Function from Vb6

Question

I am currently adding Windows 7 support to an existing Vb6 project and I have ran into a problem with locating special folder paths using SHGetFolderPath which is not supported on Windows versions starting with Vista. I know I should use SHGetKnownFolderPath but I cannot find a good example implementing using SHGetKnownFolderPath API call in VB6.

Answer 1

Easier to use the Shell object Late binding is advised because Microsoft haven't been careful about compatibility with this object.

Const ssfCOMMONAPPDATA = &H23 
Const ssfLOCALAPPDATA = &H1c
Const ssfAPPDATA = &H1a
Dim strAppData As String 

strAppData = _ 
    CreateObject("Shell.Application").NameSpace(ssfAPPDATA).Self.Path 

Answer 2

Using SHGetFolderPath from shfolder.dll just works fine under Vista and Win7:

Private Declare Function SHGetFolderPath Lib "shfolder" Alias "SHGetFolderPathA" (ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal csidl As Long, ByVal hToken As Long, ByVal dwFlags As Long, ByVal szPath As String) As Long

Then declare an enum on those CSIDL_Xxx constants:

Public Function GetSpecialFolder(ByVal eType As MySpecialFolderType) As String
    GetSpecialFolder = String(1000, 0)
    Call SHGetFolderPath(0, eType, 0, 0, GetSpecialFolder)
    GetSpecialFolder = Left$(GetSpecialFolder, InStr(GetSpecialFolder, Chr$(0)) - 1)
End Function

Answer 3

Using the code the the following this article vba/vb6 Declaring the API call at the top of module WINAPI32.bas

Private Declare Function SHGetSpecialFolderLocation Lib "shell32.dll" _
                    (ByVal hwndOwner As Long, ByVal nFolder As Long, _
                     pidl As ITEMIDLIST) As Long
Private Declare Function SHGetPathFromIDList Lib "shell32.dll" Alias "SHGetPathFromIDListA" _
                        (ByVal pidl As Long, ByVal pszPath As String) As Long
Private Type SHITEMID
    cb As Long
    abID As Byte
End Type
Private Type ITEMIDLIST
    mkid As SHITEMID
End Type

Added a new public function:

Public Function SHGetSpecialFolderLocationVB(ByVal lFolder As Long) As String
    Dim lRet As Long, IDL As ITEMIDLIST, sPath As String

    lRet = SHGetSpecialFolderLocation(100&, lFolder, IDL)
    If lRet = 0 Then
        sPath = String$(512, chr$(0))
        lRet = SHGetPathFromIDList(ByVal IDL.mkid.cb, ByVal sPath)
        SHGetSpecialFolderLocationVB = Left$(sPath, InStr(sPath, chr$(0)) - 1)
    Else
        SHGetSpecialFolderLocationVB = vbNullString
    End If
End Function

Added a new function to check for Windows versions Vista or higher

Public Function IsVistaOrHigher() As Boolean
    Dim osinfo As OSVERSIONINFO
    Dim retvalue As Integer
    Dim bVista As Boolean

    bVista = False

    osinfo.dwOSVersionInfoSize = 148
    osinfo.szCSDVersion = Space$(128)
    retvalue = GetVersionExA(osinfo)

    If osinfo.dwPlatformId = 2 Then
        If osinfo.dwMajorVersion >= 6 Then
            bVista = True
        End If
    End If
    IsVistaOrHigher = bVista
End Function

Altered the previous method calling SHGetFolderPath

Public Function SHGetFolderPathVB(ByVal lFolder As Long) As String
    Dim path As String
    If IsVistaOrHigher() Then
        SHGetFolderPathVB = SHGetSpecialFolderLocationVB(lFolder)
    Else
        path = Space$(MAX_PATH)
        SHGetFolderPath 0, lFolder, 0, SHGFP_TYPE_CURRENT, path
        SHGetFolderPathVB = Left(path, InStr(path, vbNullChar) - 1)
    End If
End Function

Works great!

Answer 4

A very late answer. But it actually shows how to use SHGetKnownFolderPath in x64 VBA and no workarounds to avoid it.

I used this German source: https://dbwiki.net/wiki/VBA_Tipp:_Spezielle_Verzeichnisse_ermitteln

The solution given there doesn’t work on x64 Office. So I changed it. Calling a native DLL from VBA requires

• Usage of the new keyword PtrSafe.
• Usage of LongPtr instead of Long for all pointers.
• Conversion of VBA strings to LongPtr objects by means of the function StrPtr.
• Calling the Unicode version of the DLL, usually marked with a “W.”

Code:

Public Const FOLDERID_ProgramFiles1  As String = "{905E63B6-C1BF-494E-B29C-65B732D3D21A}"

Public Type GUID
 Data1 As Long
 Data2 As Integer
 Data3 As Integer
 Data4(7) As Byte
End Type

Public Const S_OK As Long = 0
Public Const WIN32_NULL As Long = 0

Public Declare PtrSafe Sub CoTaskMemFree Lib "ole32" (ByVal hMem As LongPtr)

Public Declare PtrSafe Function CLSIDFromString Lib "ole32" ( _
  ByVal lpszGuid As LongPtr, _
  ByRef pGuid As GUID) As Long

Public Declare PtrSafe Function lstrlenW Lib "kernel32" ( _
 ByVal lpString As LongPtr) As Long

Public Declare PtrSafe Function SHGetKnownFolderPath Lib "shell32" ( _
  ByRef rfid As GUID, _
  ByVal dwFlags As Long, _
  ByVal hToken As Long, _
  ByRef pszPath As LongPtr) As Long

Public Declare PtrSafe Sub CopyMemory Lib "kernel32" Alias "RtlMoveMemory" ( _
 ByVal Destination As LongPtr, _
 ByVal Source As LongPtr, _
 ByVal length As Long)

Public Function GetBstrFromWideStringPtr(ByVal lpwString As LongPtr) As String
  Dim length As Long

  If (lpwString) Then length = lstrlenW(lpwString)
  If (length) Then
    GetBstrFromWideStringPtr = Space$(length)
    CopyMemory StrPtr(GetBstrFromWideStringPtr), lpwString, length * 2
  End If
End Function

Public Function GetKnownFolder(ByVal KnownFolderID As String) As String
'Returns empty String on any error.
  Dim ref As GUID
  Dim pszPath As LongPtr

  If (CLSIDFromString(StrPtr(KnownFolderID), ref) = S_OK) Then
    If (SHGetKnownFolderPath(ref, 0, WIN32_NULL, pszPath) = S_OK) Then
      GetKnownFolder = GetBstrFromWideStringPtr(pszPath)
      CoTaskMemFree pszPath
    End If
  End If
End Function

Sub TestKnownFolder()
 MsgBox GetKnownFolder(FOLDERID_ProgramFiles1)
End Sub

At the above link, you can find all FOLDERID_Blah strings.