get "Program Files" directory

Hey everyone,

I'm trying to write a function that finds the default Program Files directory. I've created one that write the directory to a file, then it gets opened for reading, but this is extremely unproductive and I was wondering if there is a way around this:

Code:

string PgmFilesDir()
{
    system("echo %PROGRAMFILES%>pgmfiles.txt");
    
    ifstream f ("pgmfiles.txt");
    
    if ( !f.is_open() )
    {
        cout << "ERROR! Unable to locate program files directory!" << endl << "Press a key to quit.";
        system("pause>nul");
        ExitProcess(0);
    }
    
    string pgmfiles;

    getline(f, pgmfiles, '\n');
    
    return pgmfiles;
}

I'm trying to avoid the use of the system() command...

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Matt

SHGetSpecialFolderPath will do it.