Author: Jonas Bilinkevicius

How to get the Start Menu folder location in Windows regardless of the OS (WinNT 
Wks, WinNT Srv, Win95, Win98)?

Answer:

Solve 1:
1   
2   procedure FreePidl(pidl: PItemIDList);
3   var
4     allocator: IMalloc;
5   begin
6     if Succeeded(SHGetMalloc(allocator)) then
7     begin
8       allocator.Free(pidl);
9   {$IFDEF VER90}
10      allocator.Release;
11  {$ENDIF}
12    end;
13  end;
14  
15  procedure TForm1.Button2Click(Sender: TObject);
16  var
17    pidl: PItemIDList;
18    buf: array[0..MAX_PATH] of Char;
19  begin
20    if Succeeded(ShGetSpecialFolderLocation(Handle, CSIDL_STARTMENU, pidl)) then
21    begin
22      if ShGetPathfromIDList(pidl, buf) then
23        ShowMessage(buf);
24      FreePIDL(pidl);
25    end;
26  end;


Needs ShlObj in the Uses clause.


Solve 2:

To obtain the name of the Windows\Start Menu\Program directory on a system, use 
code like this:
27  
28  function GetSpecialDir(Index: Integer): string;
29  var
30    S: string;
31    IDL: PItemIDList;
32  begin
33    Result := '';
34    if Succeeded(SHGetSpecialFolderLocation(0, Index, IDL)) then
35    begin
36      SetLength(S, MAX_PATH);
37      if Succeeded(SHGetPathFromIDList(IDL, PChar(S))) then
38        Result := PChar(S);
39    end;
40  end;


You call it with code like:

ProgDir := GetSpecialDir(CSIDL_PROGRAMS);

The CSIDL_ identifiers are specified in ShlObj.pas, so are the 
SHGetSpecialFolderLocation and SHGetPathFromIDList functions.


Solve 3:

Here is an example to get the startup folder:
41  
42  { ... }
43  var
44    idRoot: PItemIDList;
45    Buf: array[1..MAX_PATH] of Char;
46  begin
47    StartupFolder := '';
48    try
49      if SHGetSpecialFolderLocation(Handle, CSIDL_STARTUP, idRoot) = NOERROR then
50      begin
51        FillChar(Buf, SizeOf(Buf), #32);
52        SHGetPathFromIDList(idRoot, PChar(@Buf));
53        SetString(StartupFolder, PChar(@Buf), Length(Buf));
54        StartupFolder := Trim(StartupFolder) + '\';
55      end;
56    except
57    end;
58  end;
59  { ... }