Win 10 - Display where Known Folder ?FOLDERID_Documents points to via Command line or Powershell

Question

Does anyone know a method for displaying where the Known Folder ?FOLDERID_Documents currently points to within Windows 10 (Version 1703)?

I need a method than can be carried out from the DOS Command line or from Powershell, as I am trying to troubleshoot a problem on a machine that will not allow me to use anything more groovy.

I'm not really a Powershell user so if I would ask for a nice and gentle approach if that is the way to go.

Is it possible to expose the value of ?FOLDERID_Documents with VB Script ?

I understand that ?FOLDERID_Documents is not an environment variable in the traditional sense. I also know that the environment variable %USERPROFILE% may point to the root location of where ?FOLDERID_Documents points to, but I live in hope that there must be a simple way of displaying the value of ?FOLDERID_Documents with a nice simple command.

According to the Microsoft Dev Centre (Ref: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/shell/knownfolderid):

KNOWNFOLDERID constants represent GUIDs that identify standard folders registered with the system as Known Folders. These folders are installed with Windows Vista and later operating systems, and a computer will have only folders appropriate to it installed.

It would appear that some applications, like SAS Version 9.4, make use of these KNOWNFOLDERIDs to direct themselves to the physical locations represented by generic folder such as My Documents and other applications do not. My problem is that for a pair of my SAS users, their Windows 10 installations appear to have suddenly forgotten where ?FOLDERID_Documents points to. They have only had this problem in the last few days.

As this problem is not affecting all users, I am trying to find a simple way to expose the value held by ?FOLDERID_Documents on an affected and an un-affected Windows installation so that I can raise it with our in-house technical support.

Answer 1

reg query "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders" /v Personal