Can anyone tell me if Environment.SpecialFolders works correctly on non-english versions of windows. for example. where the SpecialFolder.CommonProgramFiles is not "c:\program files\common files"?
Yes - that's the way to go. On a German Windows, the Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles setting would return C:\Programme, and the Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonProgramFiles would return C:\Programme\Gemeinsame Dateien (or something similar - I always use US-English Windows myself).
Don't hardcode - use the Environment.SpecialFolders!
Marc