Discussion How to find the Saved Games directory (C#)

jgm · Sep 17, 2016

I've been adding features to EDDI for the journal and one question was how to find the "Saved Games" directory. Looks like the following code does the job. Feel free to copy it or to fix it if you find there are any problems with it.

Code:

        private static string GetSavedGamesDir()
        {
            IntPtr path;
            int result = SHGetKnownFolderPath(new Guid("4C5C32FF-BB9D-43B0-B5B4-2D72E54EAAA4"), 0, new IntPtr(0), out path);
            if (result >= 0)
            {
                return Marshal.PtrToStringUni(path) + @"\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous";
            }
            else
            {
                throw new ExternalException("Failed to find the saved games directory.", result);
            }
        }

        [DllImport("Shell32.dll")]
        private static extern int SHGetKnownFolderPath([MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStruct)]Guid rfid, uint dwFlags, IntPtr hToken, out IntPtr ppszPath);

Genar-Hofoen · Sep 29, 2016

Here's a version for Python

Python 3.x version. (Python 3.4 is what I use currently).

It's a bit more long-winded, because we have to hook into the Windows 32-bit API and define some needed structures using ctypes

Code:

from win32com.shell import shell, shellcon
import ctypes
from ctypes import windll, wintypes
from uuid import UUID


class GUID(ctypes.Structure):
    _fields_ = [
        ("Data1", wintypes.DWORD),
        ("Data2", wintypes.WORD),
        ("Data3", wintypes.WORD),
        ("Data4", wintypes.BYTE * 8)
    ]

    def __init__(self, uuid_):
        ctypes.Structure.__init__(self)
        self.Data1, self.Data2, self.Data3, self.Data4[0], self.Data4[1], rest = uuid_.fields
        for i in range(2, 8):
            self.Data4[i] = rest >> (8 - i - 1) * 8 & 0xff


class FOLDERID:
    SavedGames = UUID('{4C5C32FF-BB9D-43b0-B5B4-2D72E54EAAA4}')


class UserHandle:
    current = wintypes.HANDLE(0)
    common = wintypes.HANDLE(-1)


_CoTaskMemFree = windll.ole32.CoTaskMemFree
_CoTaskMemFree.restype = None
_CoTaskMemFree.argtypes = [ctypes.c_void_p]
_SHGetKnownFolderPath = windll.shell32.SHGetKnownFolderPath
_SHGetKnownFolderPath.argtypes = [
    ctypes.POINTER(GUID), wintypes.DWORD, wintypes.HANDLE, ctypes.POINTER(ctypes.c_wchar_p)
]


class PathNotFoundException(Exception): pass


def get_path(folderid, user_handle=UserHandle.common):
    fid = GUID(folderid)
    pPath = ctypes.c_wchar_p()
    S_OK = 0
    if _SHGetKnownFolderPath(ctypes.byref(fid), 0, user_handle, ctypes.byref(pPath)) != S_OK:
        raise PathNotFoundException()
    path = pPath.value
    _CoTaskMemFree(pPath)
    return path

Getting the Saved Games path is for example:

Code:

savedgamespath = get_path(FOLDERID.SavedGames, UserHandle.current)

If you need or want to get more folder locations, the reference is here : https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd378457.aspx

You can add more UUID's to the FOLDERID class.

EDIT: In fact found a full gist of this with all the UUIDS and it's under an MIT license..

https://gist.github.com/repodevs/d965e37ad53c284a8b9bfce670616ffb

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2014 Michael Kropat

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
THE SOFTWARE.

Hope this helps my fellow Pythonistas o7

Discussion How to find the Saved Games directory (C#)

jgm

Genar-Hofoen