How do I discover the user's Desktop folder? - vb.net

Question

I'm making a little application in visual studio which loads a ROM in an emulator.
I have two emulators and 20 ROMs.
I made a form and added a few buttons. When you click the Button it opens a new form and closes the old one. Then on the new form I have four buttons: each one loads a different ROM in an emulator. So when you press Button1 this code is triggered:
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles yellow.Click
Shell("C:\Users\shifty\Desktop\pokemon games\Emulator\VBA\VisualBoyAdvance.exe ""C:\Users\shifty\Desktop\pokemon games\Roms\Yellow\Pokemon Yellow.gb""", vbNormalFocus)
End Sub
It works fine - I click it and it loads the game in the emulator. The bit im having trouble with is the file paths. If I send this application to a friend, it would still look for "C:\Users\shifty\Desktop\" - but that's on my computer, not his.
Is there a way to make the application look for the file on his computer (without changing the file path to (C:\Users\""his user name""\Desktop))

Answer 1

Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Desktop)
This will resolve to be the desktop folder for the current user.
It will even work between XP, vista and Windows 7 properly.

Answer 2

Old post but I have to side with Mc Shifty. You can't assume that everyone is a coding expert. If they were then they wouldn't be here asking questions like that.
None of the answers given above were complete
Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Desktop)) <<< includes and extra )
Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Desktop)); <<< extra ) and the ; is C or java not VB which he is obviously using by his example code.
Both of those only give you half of the required code to generate something usable.
Dim s As String = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Desktop)
The above code will give you the result needed, c:\users\shifty\desktop
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles yellow.Click
Dim s As String = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Desktop)
Shell(s & "\Desktop\pokemon games\Emulator\VBA\VisualBoyAdvance.exe " & s & "\pokemon games\Roms\Yellow\Pokemon Yellow.gb""", vbNormalFocus)
End Sub

Answer 3

There's a mechanism to get the current user's Desktop directory, using Environment.SpecialFolder.
Usage:
Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Desktop));

Answer 4

I had problems using the Environment.GetFolderPath method from previous answers.
The following works in VB 2012, My.Computer.FileSystem.SpecialDirectories.Desktop
So, if you have a file on a users desktop named "contacts.txt", the following will display the full path,
' Desktop path
Dim desktopPath = My.Computer.FileSystem.SpecialDirectories.Desktop
' Concatenate desktop path and file name
filePath = desktopPath & "/contacts.txt"
MsgBox(filePath)
Documentation

Answer 5

Really old post at this point, but hey, found what I was looking for.
MC SH1FTY, I assume you have figured this out already, but to do what you are trying to do:
1) Call in that code that Spence wrote as a variable (I'd declare it Globally, but that's my preference. To do that:
Public userDesktopLoc As String = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Desktop)
2) Either use this DIRECTLY in your code, or make another string to concatenate a directory:
Option A)
Public emulatorPath As String = userDesktopLoc & "pokemon games\Emulator\VBA\VisualBoyAdvance.exe "
Public romPath As String = userDesktopLoc & "pokemon games\Roms\Yellow\Pokemon Yellow.gb"
Then, within your Subroutine, replace your current Shell statement with:
Shell(emulatorPath & romPath, vbNormalFocus)
Or, Option B, which is thedsz's answer:
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles yellow.Click
Dim s As String = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Desktop)
Shell(s & "\Desktop\pokemon games\Emulator\VBA\VisualBoyAdvance.exe " & s & "\pokemon games\Roms\Yellow\Pokemon Yellow.gb""", vbNormalFocus)
End Sub

Answer 6

By using that you guarantee that the emulator is on the users desktop. This is not always the case. I know I move things around that I download or a friend sends to me. It's better to use App.Path and make sure your emulator.exe is in the directory with your little front end program (usually the case).

Answer 7

the answer is simple.
put this at the top of the form
"Public thepath As String = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Desktop)"
that ensures that the file is on their desktop!
then" click on your button or whatever you used to open the emu and type
"Process.Start(thepath + "the emulator.exe "+ "the rom you want")

Answer 8

You need to use a file open dialog to choose your path for the two files. Here is an example.
You then use the two paths in your code:
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles yellow.Click
Shell(emulatorPath + "\"" + romPath + "\"", vbNormalFocus)
End Sub