Comments on: Finding a user’s Documents folder on Windows and Mac

By: Irwin Oppenheim

Irwin Oppenheim — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 16:58:42 +0000

This bit of code worked for me:

from win32com.shell import shell, shellcon
mydocuments = shell.SHGetFolderPath(0, shellcon.CSIDL_PERSONAL, 0, 0)

I found a whole list of constants here:
http://www.theutilityfactory.com/online_help/index.html?hidd_special_folders.htm

Best,
Irwin

By: Eric H. Jung

Eric H. Jung — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 00:38:47 +0000

It’s not that “My Documents” is a virtual folder, it’s that each user can change the location of “My Documents” to wherever he likes. Assuming it’s under the user’s profile is a big mistake. It can very easily be under the root or /temp or anything else…

By: tazzzzz

tazzzzz — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 17:35:58 +0000

Microsoft strongly recommends using the style that I pointed to, for a couple of good reasons. One is that “My Documents” is apparently some kind of virtual folder and is not guaranteed to be where you think it is. The other is the “My Documents” is English… the folder itself isn’t guaranteed to be called “My Documents”.

By: Tim Keating

Tim Keating — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 17:06:09 +0000

As an alternative, on Windows — and I know, this is just crazy talk from a Linux programmer — you could do os.path.join(os.getenv(’USERPROFILE’), ‘My Documents’).

By: Kent Johnson

Kent Johnson — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 11:59:29 +0000

You’re right about the lack of license for winshell.py. I’ve just emailed Tim Golden asking if he would clarify this.

By: tazzzzz

tazzzzz — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 11:49:28 +0000

Thank you! I was certain there was a Cocoa way to do it, and I’d rather do it the Cocoa way…

By: Ronald Oussoren

Ronald Oussoren — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 07:58:01 +0000

An alternative on the mac using PyObjC:

from Foundation import *
docs = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(
NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, True)[0]

By: tazzzzz

tazzzzz — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 02:26:41 +0000

I hadn’t seen that, oddly enough. That certainly does have an API that is more pleasant.

I’d imagine that the author would be happy to fix this, but I noticed that there’s no license listed for it… which essentially renders it unusable.

Thanks for the link!

By: Kent Johnson

Kent Johnson — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 01:59:23 +0000

Did you try the method in Tim Golden’s winshell.py? It is a bit more straightforward.

http://tgolden.sc.sabren.com/python/winshell.html