How to programmatically derive Windows Downloads folder “%USERPROFILE%/Downloads”?

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Yes it is special, discovering the name of this folder didn’t become possible until Vista. .NET still needs to support prior operating systems. You can pinvoke SHGetKnownFolderPath() to bypass this limitation, like this:

using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
...

public static string GetDownloadsPath() {
    if (Environment.OSVersion.Version.Major < 6) throw new NotSupportedException();
    IntPtr pathPtr = IntPtr.Zero;
    try {
        SHGetKnownFolderPath(ref FolderDownloads, 0, IntPtr.Zero, out pathPtr);
        return Marshal.PtrToStringUni(pathPtr);
    }
    finally {
        Marshal.FreeCoTaskMem(pathPtr);
    }
}

private static Guid FolderDownloads = new Guid("374DE290-123F-4565-9164-39C4925E467B");
[DllImport("shell32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
private static extern int SHGetKnownFolderPath(ref Guid id, int flags, IntPtr token, out IntPtr path);

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