python - Finding the user's "Downloads" folder

This fairly simple solution (expanded from this reddit post) worked for me

import os

def get_download_path():
    """Returns the default downloads path for linux or windows"""
    if os.name == 'nt':
        import winreg
        sub_key = r'SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders'
        downloads_guid = '{374DE290-123F-4565-9164-39C4925E467B}'
        with winreg.OpenKey(winreg.HKEY_CURRENT_USER, sub_key) as key:
            location = winreg.QueryValueEx(key, downloads_guid)[0]
        return location
    else:
        return os.path.join(os.path.expanduser('~'), 'downloads')

• The GUID can be obtained from Microsoft's KNOWNFOLDERID docs
• This can be expanded to work more generically other directories

Correctly locating Windows folders is somewhat of a chore in Python. According to answers covering Microsoft development technologies, such as this one, they should be obtained using the Vista Known Folder API. This API is not wrapped by the Python standard library (though there is an issue from 2008 requesting it), but one can use the ctypes module to access it anyway.

Adapting the above answer to use the folder id for downloads shown here and combining it with your existing Unix code should result in code that looks like this:

import os

if os.name == 'nt':
    import ctypes
    from ctypes import windll, wintypes
    from uuid import UUID

    # ctypes GUID copied from MSDN sample code
    class GUID(ctypes.Structure):
        _fields_ = [
            ("Data1", wintypes.DWORD),
            ("Data2", wintypes.WORD),
            ("Data3", wintypes.WORD),
            ("Data4", wintypes.BYTE * 8)
        ] 

        def __init__(self, uuidstr):
            uuid = UUID(uuidstr)
            ctypes.Structure.__init__(self)
            self.Data1, self.Data2, self.Data3, \
                self.Data4[0], self.Data4[1], rest = uuid.fields
            for i in range(2, 8):
                self.Data4[i] = rest>>(8-i-1)*8 & 0xff

    SHGetKnownFolderPath = windll.shell32.SHGetKnownFolderPath
    SHGetKnownFolderPath.argtypes = [
        ctypes.POINTER(GUID), wintypes.DWORD,
        wintypes.HANDLE, ctypes.POINTER(ctypes.c_wchar_p)
    ]

    def _get_known_folder_path(uuidstr):
        pathptr = ctypes.c_wchar_p()
        guid = GUID(uuidstr)
        if SHGetKnownFolderPath(ctypes.byref(guid), 0, 0, ctypes.byref(pathptr)):
            raise ctypes.WinError()
        return pathptr.value

    FOLDERID_Download = '{374DE290-123F-4565-9164-39C4925E467B}'

    def get_download_folder():
        return _get_known_folder_path(FOLDERID_Download)
else:
    def get_download_folder():
        home = os.path.expanduser("~")
        return os.path.join(home, "Downloads")

A more complete module for retrieving known folders from Python is available on github.

from pathlib import Path
downloads_path = str(Path.home() / "Downloads")