.NET Process.Start default directory?

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?

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);

Use the [ProcessStartInfo.WorkingDirectory][1] 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%:

...
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][2] property .

[1]: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.diagnostics.processstartinfo.workingdirectory.aspx "Link to MSDN documentation on ProcessStartInfo.WorkingDirectory" [2]: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.environment.currentdirectory.aspx "MSDN documentation on Environment.CurrentDirectory"

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.

Use the ProcessStartInfo.WorkingDirectory property.

Docs here.

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.

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