FileSystemObject.GetSpecialFolder Method (VB6)

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Syntax

oFileSysObj.GetSpecialFolder(SpecialFolder)

oFileSysObj

Use: Required

Data Type: FileSystemObject object

Any object variable returning a FileSystemObject object.

SpecialFolder

Use: Required

Data Type: Special folder constant

A value specifying one of three special system folders.

Return Value

A Folder object

Description

Returns a reference to a Folder object of one of the three special system folders: System, Temporary, and Windows.

Rules at a Glance

SpecialFolder can be one of the following special folder constants:

Constant	Value	Description
SystemFolder	1	The Windows system folder (/windows/system or /windows/system32)
TemporaryFolder	2	The folder that stores temporary files (../windows/temp)
WindowsFolder	0	The root folder of the Windows system folder tree (/windows or /winnt)

Programming Tips and Gotchas

• This method is a great boon for VB programmers who don't want to get involved with the Windows API, which, in the past, is how you had to determine a path to one of the special folders.

• You can use the Set statement to assign the Folder object reference to a local object variable. However, if you're interested only in retrieving the path to the special folder, you can do it with a statement like the following:

  sPath = oFileSys.GetSpecialFolder(iFolderConst)

  
  

  or:

  sPath = oFileSys.GetSpecialFolder(iFolderConst).Path

  
  

  The first statement works because the Path property is the Folder object's default property. Since the assignment isn't to an object variable, it's the default property's value, rather than the object reference, that is assigned to sPath.