How to get temporary folder for current user

I have this same requirement - we want to put logs in a specific root directory that should exist within the environment.

public static readonly string DefaultLogFilePath = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.UserProfile);

If I want to combine this with a sub-directory, I should be able to use Path.Combine( ... ).

The GetFolderPath method has an overload for special folder options which allows you to control whether the specified path be created or simply verified.

System.IO.Path.GetTempPath() is just a wrapper for a native call to GetTempPath(..) in Kernel32.

Have a look at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa364992(VS.85).aspx

Copied from that page:

The GetTempPath function checks for the existence of environment variables in the following order and uses the first path found:

• The path specified by the TMP environment variable.
• The path specified by the TEMP environment variable.
• The path specified by the USERPROFILE environment variable.
• The Windows directory.

It's not entirely clear to me whether "The Windows directory" means the temp directory under windows or the windows directory itself. Dumping temp files in the windows directory itself sounds like an undesirable case, but who knows.

So combining that page with your post I would guess that either one of the TMP, TEMP or USERPROFILE variables for your Administrator user points to the windows path, or else they're not set and it's taking a fallback to the windows temp path.

DO NOT use this:

System.Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("TEMP")

Environment variables can be overridden, so the TEMP variable is not necessarily the directory.

The correct way is to use System.IO.Path.GetTempPath() as in the accepted answer.