Best location to install temporary files

[Allan Cammish]

I am writing a web based application that uses an ActiveX control on a
web page to install files on the user's computer. These files will
then be opened using programs on the user's computer such as WordPad.
Some of the files will be also executed and delete the files which are
not longer required.

The files are not meant to be permanently left on the users computer,
so there are by definition ‘temporary' files but will need to survive
a re-boot.

Can someone advise me on the best folder to copy these files to? I
want to avoid or reduce security issues. Because this is a web-based
application, I have no control over what security is in place.

Examples of folders I have in mind are:

\WINDOWS\
\WINDOWS\Downloaded Program Files (can this folder contain exe files?)
\WINDOWS\Temp
Creating a new folder somewhere on the user's hard disk

Regards

Allan Cammish

 

[Ray at]

The user's %temp% path is the best place for temp files, but you should
probably inquire in another group if you'd like a second opinion. This
group is all about server-side programming, so you're not as likely to find
as good of client-side advice here as you would in an ActiveX group, for
example.

Ray at work