Runtime exec cannot run programs in appdata?

Question

I have been messing around with running some .exe files and it appears as if there is something blocking it from running it in appdata?

Runtime.getRuntime().exec(System.getenv("APPDATA") + "test.exe");

This is the error I get

java.io.IOException: Cannot run program "C:\Users\Cole": CreateProcess error=2, The system cannot find the file specified

Answer 1

You should not use the plain exec(String) method as it requires OS specific escaping. If you use the string array version it should find the executable.

It is also a good idea to check if the variable exists and if it ends with a \\ before concatenating it with the filename. Or better use the hierachical File constructor:

String appdata = System.getenv("APPDATA");
if (appdata == null || appdata.trim().isEmpty())
  appdata=".";
String fileName = new File(appdata, "test.exe").getAbsolutePath();
Runtime.getRuntime().exec(new String[]{fileName /*, noargs */});

Answer 2

An easy way to do this is to construct the path using a File object.

final String f = new File(System.getenv("APPDATA"), "test.exe").toString();
final Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(new String[] { f });