Beware File Open/Save Dialogs: They May Change The Current Directory
Win32 c mfc win32
Published: 2005-09-08
Beware File Open/Save Dialogs: They May Change The Current Directory

On some Windows operating systems (primarily Windows 95, 98, and ME), GetOpenFileName() and GetSaveFileName() (and wrappers of these functions such as MFC’s CFileDialog) will permanently change the process’s current working directory unless the OFN_NOCHANGEDIR option is specified. As you can imagine, this can easily break your application if you ever rely on the current working directory being set to a particular value (such as if you open files using relative paths).

Of course, it is best to eliminate any such current working directory assumptions from your application completely.