How to get folder path for ClickOnce application

Question

I need to write a file in the same folder where a console ClickOnce  application  executable file  resides  The folder where it launches from   I tried using Application StartupPath  amp  Path GetDirectoryName Assembly GetExecutingAssembly   Location  but the path is pointing to a subfolder under c  Documents  amp  Settings  How do I get the path where the  application resides in

User · Answer

ClickOnce applications DO reside in a subdirectory of C  Documents  amp  Settings  They don t have  clean  installation directories because the local files are essentially  temporarily  downloaded to allow the application to run on the local PC and execution of the application is controlled from the ClickOnce server that they are deployed on depending on publishing settings  Checking for updates  version requirements  etc

User · Answer

To find the folder location  you can just run the app  open the task manager  CTRL-SHIFT-ESC   select the app and right-click Open file location

User · Answer

Here s what I found that worked for being able to get the deployed folder location of my clickonce application and that hasn t been mentioned anywhere I saw in my searches  for my similar  specific scenario    The clickonce application is deployed to a company LAN network folder  The clickonce application is set to be available online or offline  My clickonce installation URL and Update URLs in my project properties have nothing specified  That is  there is no separate location for installation or updates  In my publishing options  I am having a desktop shortcut created for the clickonce application  The folder I want to get the path for at startup is one that I want to be accessed by the DEV  INT  and PROD versions of the application  without hardcoding the path    Here is a visual of my use case      The blue boxed folders are my directory locations for each environment s application  The red boxed folder is the directory I want to get the path for  which requires first getting the app s deployed folder location  MyClickOnceGreatApp 1 0 0 37  which is the same as the OP     I did not find any of the suggestions in this question or their comments to work in returning the folder that the clickonce application was deployed to  that I would then move relative to this folder to find the folder of interest   No other internet searching or related SO questions turned up an answer either   All of the suggested properties either were failing due to the object  e g  ActivationUri  being null  or were pointing to the local PC s cached installed app folder  Yes  I could gracefully handle null objects by a check for IsNetworkDeployed - that s not a problem - but surprisingly IsNetworkDeployed returns false even though I do in fact have a network deployed folder location for the clickonce application  This is because the application is running from the local  cached bits   The solution is to look at    AppDomain CurrentDomain BaseDirectory when the application is being run within visual studio as I develop and System Deployment Application ApplicationDeployment CurrentDeployment UpdateLocation when it is executing normally    System Deployment Application ApplicationDeployment CurrentDeployment UpdateLocation correctly returns the network directory that my clickonce application is deployed to  in all cases  That is  when it is launched via    setup exe MyClickOnceGreatApp application The desktop shortcut created upon first install and launch of the application    Here s the code I use at application startup to get the path of the WorkAccounts folder  Getting the deployed application folder is simple by just not marching up to parent directories   string directoryOfInterest       if  System Diagnostics Debugger IsAttached        directoryOfInterest   Directory GetParent Directory GetParent Directory GetParent AppDomain CurrentDomain BaseDirectory  FullName  FullName  FullName    else       try               string path   System Deployment Application ApplicationDeployment CurrentDeployment UpdateLocation ToString            path   path Replace  file                 path   path Replace                     directoryOfInterest   Directory GetParent Directory GetParent path  FullName  FullName            catch  Exception ex                directoryOfInterest    Error getting update directory needed for relative base for finding WorkAccounts directory  n    ex Message     n nUpdate location directory is      System Deployment Application ApplicationDeployment CurrentDeployment UpdateLocation ToString

User · Answer

path is pointing to a subfolder under c  Documents  amp  Settings   That s right  ClickOnce applications are installed under the profile of the user who installed them  Did you take the path that retrieving the info from the executing assembly gave you  and go check it out    On windows Vista and Windows 7  you will find the ClickOnce cache here   c  users username AppData Local Apps 2 0 obfuscatedfoldername obfuscatedfoldername   On Windows XP  you will find it here   C  Documents and Settings username LocalSettings Apps 2 0 obfuscatedfoldername obfuscatedfoldername

User · Answer

I m using Assembly GetExecutingAssembly   Location to get the path to a ClickOnce deployed application in  Net 4 5 1   However  you shouldn t write to any folder where your application is deployed to ever  regardless of deployment method  xcopy  ClickOnce  InstallShield  anything  because those are usually read only for applications  especially in newer Windows versions and server environments   An app must always write to the folders reserved for such purposes  You can get the folders you need starting from Environment SpecialFolder Enumeration  The MSDN page explains what each folder is for  http   msdn microsoft com en-us library system environment specialfolder aspx  I e  for data  logs and other files one can use ApplicationData  roaming   LocalApplicationData  local  or CommonApplicationData  For temporary files use Path GetTempPath or Path GetTempFileName   The above work on servers and desktops too   EDIT  Assembly GetExecutingAssembly   is called in main executable

User · Answer

ApplicationDeployment CurrentDeployment ActivationUri might work   A zero-length string if the TrustUrlParameters property in the deployment manifest is false  or if the user has supplied a UNC to open the deployment or has opened it locally  Otherwise  the return value is the full URL used to launch the application  including any parameters      BUT what I think you really want is ApplicationDeployment CurrentDeployment DataDirectory which gives you a folder you can write data to  When you update the application anyways you ll lose what was in the original  exe folder  but you can migrate the data directory over to a new version of the app  Your app can write to this folder with whatever log files it has - and I m pretty sure its guaranteed to be writable

User · Answer

Assuming the question is about accessing files in the application folder after the ClickOnce  true    System Deployment ApplicationDeploy IsNetworkDeployed  application is installed on the user s PC  their are three ways to get this folder by the application itself   String path1   System AppDomain CurrentDomain BaseDirectory  String path2   System IO Directory GetCurrentDirectory        String path3   System Reflection Assembly GetExecutingAssembly   CodeBase    Remove the last path component  the executing assembly itself    These work from VS IDE and from a deployed installed ClickedOnce app  no  true    System Deployment ApplicationDeploy IsNetworkDeployed  check required  ClickOnce picks up any files included in the Visual Studio 2017 project so really the application can access any and all deployed files using relative paths from within the application   This is based on Windows 10 and Visual Studio 2017

[.net] How to get folder path for ClickOnce application

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