Another converse of How do I programmatically create folders like My Pictures if they were manually deleted? is How do I prevent folders like My Pictures from being recreated?
Starting in Windows 7, there is a group policy called Disable Known Folders which lets you specify a list of known folders which should be disabled.
If somebody tries to create a known folder programmatically,
the call will fail with
ERROR_
.
Note that this policy only blocks creation of the folder. If the folder already exists, then the policy has no effect. (You're locking the door after the horse has bolted.)