Getting the path of the home directory in C#?

You are looking for Environment.SpecialFolder.UserProfile which refers to C:\Users\myname on Windows and /home/myname on Unix/Linux:

Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.UserProfile)

Note that Environment.SpecialFolder.Personal is My Documents (or Documents in win7 and above), but same as home directory on Unix/Linux.

Environment.SpecialFolder.Personal doesn't actually return the home folder, it returns the My Documents folder. The safest way to get the home folder on Win32 is to read %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%. Reading environment variables is actually very portable to do (across Unix and Windows), so I'm not sure why the poster wanted to not do it.

Edited to add: For crossplatform (Windows/Unix) C#, I'd read $HOME on Unix and OSX and %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH% on Windows.