.NET Process.Start default directory?

Question

I'm firing off a Java application from inside of a C# .NET console application. It works fine for the case where the Java application doesn't care what the "default" directory is, but fails for a Java application that only searches the current directory for support files.

Is there a process parameter that can be set to specify the default directory that a process is started in?

Answer 1

Yes! ProcessStartInfo Has a property called WorkingDirectory, just use:

...
using System.Diagnostics;
...

var startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();

  startInfo.WorkingDirectory = // working directory
  // set additional properties 

Process proc = Process.Start(startInfo);

Answer 2

Use the ProcessStartInfo.WorkingDirectory property to set it prior to starting the process. If the property is not set, the default working directory is %SYSTEMROOT%\system32.

You can determine the value of %SYSTEMROOT% by using:

string _systemRoot = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("SYSTEMROOT");  

Here is some sample code that opens Notepad.exe with a working directory of %ProgramFiles%:

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using System.Diagnostics;
...

ProcessStartInfo _processStartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
  _processStartInfo.WorkingDirectory = @"%ProgramFiles%";
  _processStartInfo.FileName         = @"Notepad.exe";
  _processStartInfo.Arguments        = "test.txt";
  _processStartInfo.CreateNoWindow   = true;
Process myProcess = Process.Start(_processStartInfo);

There is also an Environment variable that controls the current working directory for your process that you can access directly through the Environment.CurrentDirectory property .

Answer 3

Just a note after hitting my head trying to implement this. Setting the WorkingDirectory value does not work if you have "UseShellExecute" set to false.

Answer 4

Use the ProcessStartInfo.WorkingDirectory property.

Docs here.

Answer 5

The Process.Start method has an overload that takes an instance of ProcessStartInfo. This class has a property called "WorkingDirectory".

Set that property to the folder you want to use and that should make it start up in the correct folder.

Answer 6

Use the ProcessStartInfo class and assign a value to the WorkingDirectory property.

Answer 7

I was in a catch 22 like @cbbspike as I wanted to have both UseShellExecute equal to false and set the WorkingDirectory to where the EXE should start. So I took @larry-smithmier answer and set the Environment.CurrentDirectory as he suggested.

Note: I did not have to surround the directory in quotes. In my case the scriptsPath variable was the directory C:\Program Files\SomeDir\

Environment.CurrentDirectory = scriptsPath;

ProcessStartInfo processStartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo("powershell.exe", scriptArguments);
processStartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
//processStartInfo.WorkingDirectory = // intended working directory