Get user image

Question

OS: Win7x64 (2008,2008r2). Lang: Delphi Xe2.

• How to get the full path (and file name) to the image "User account image"?
• How to install a new image?

Delphi plz example.

Need: ... function GetCurrentUserPicture: string;

... function GetUserPicture (UserName: String): string;

... function SetUserNewPicture (UserName, ImageFileName: String): bool;

Answer 1

Shell32.dll has an undocumented function. In Windows XP, its serial number is 233, in Windows Vista and 7 its serial number is 261.

Its function prototype ( from Airesoft ):

HRESULT WINAPI SHGetUserPicturePath ( LPCWSTR pwszPicOrUserName, DWORD sguppFlags, LPWSTR pwszPicPath, UINT picPathLen ) 

You can use this function to get the path where the user's image is stored. Just pass the username as pwszPicOrUserName, the buffer in which you want to save the image path as pwszPicPath and the size of the buffer in char as picPathLen. You can set sguppFlags to 0 or to any of the other flags .

There is also an undocumented feature that you can use to set up a custom user image. Its serial number is 234 on Windows XP, 262 on Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Its function prototype ( from Airesoft ):

 HRESULT WINAPI SHSetUserPicturePath ( LPWSTR pwszAcctName, DWORD reserved, LPCWSTR pwszPictureFile ) 

Pass in the username whose image should be changed as pwszAcctName and the path to the image you want to set as pwszPictureFile. Set is reserved for 0. You must initialize COM before calling this function.

According to Microsoft, you should not rely on an undocumented feature because they can be removed or changed using any patch installed on Windows.

Answer 2

According to MSDN :

In Windows 7 or later, each user profile has an associated image represented as a user tile. These tiles are displayed to users of the User Account Control Element and the Account Management sub page. image files for user accounts by default and by default will appear here if you have administrator privileges.

....

The user fragment of the image is saved as C: \ Users \ <username> \ Local \ Temp as .bmp. Any slash characters () are converted to plus signs plus (+). For example, DOMAIN \ user is converted to a DOMAIN + user.

I could not find an API to get the image, and since the official documentation calls this implementation detail, I think it means you can rely on it. This, I think, is a supported way to get tile images.