Parsia-Clone

'Documentation is a love letter that you write to your future self.' - Damian Conway

1 minute read - Random

Windows SearchPath

Github Link

A while ago I was playing with the Windows API SearchPath. It will search for a specific file in PATH.

DWORD WINAPI SearchPath(
    _In_opt_  LPCTSTR lpPath,
    _In_      LPCTSTR lpFileName,
    _In_opt_  LPCTSTR lpExtension,
    _In_      DWORD   nBufferLength,
    _Out_     LPTSTR  lpBuffer,
    _Out_opt_ LPTSTR  *lpFilePart
);

Note this quirk from the "Remarks" section. When lpPath is NULL (which usually is). It looks up the following registry key. If the value is 1 it will first search in PATH then in current working directory and vice versa if 0. Default is 0.

  • HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\SafeProcessSearchMode