Question about "Documents and Settings\<user>" location

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milawynsrealm
Posts: 43
Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2011 10:48 pm

Question about "Documents and Settings\<user>" location

Post by milawynsrealm »

Does the "Documents and Settings\<user>" folder have to be in the C:\ drive, or can it be on another drive? I'm guessing that it is, but I just want to make sure before creating a patch for changes that would add both HOMEDRIVE and HOMEPATH to the environment variable list.
vicmarcal
Test Team
Posts: 2733
Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2008 12:35 pm

Re: Question about "Documents and Settings\<user>" location

Post by vicmarcal »

It has to be there. The reason is simple: Bad Windows apps developers.
When coding an app,Windows apps developers should use Registry keys to find the Path to a "System" folder.But instead doing that there are Devs hardcoding that Path into the app.
If the Dev uses a registry key then the app will always find the folder (even if you place Documents and Settings in a different place)but if it expects the folder directly in C: and it is not there: Kabooom.
Angelus
Posts: 132
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2006 12:26 pm
Location: Spain

Re: Question about "Documents and Settings\<user>" location

Post by Angelus »

t's typical in non-english versions of Windows to see 2 different folders for the same task: "Program Files" due to what vicmarcal explained. I.e. In spanish version we can see that Windows creates the folder "Archivos de Programa" while other installed programs use "c:\Program Files" as this route is hardcoded. In my computer there are 2 folders inside that belong to Aopen and Java files. The rest of installed programs are using "Archivos de Programa"
milon
Posts: 969
Joined: Sat Sep 05, 2009 9:26 pm

Re: Question about "Documents and Settings\<user>" location

Post by milon »

This is probably a terrible idea from a performance standpoint, but it would be possible for ROS to monitor for access to "C:\Program Files\" or "C:\Documents and Settings\" on systems where they're in different locations and reroute the access request.
vicmarcal
Test Team
Posts: 2733
Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2008 12:35 pm

Re: Question about "Documents and Settings\<user>" location

Post by vicmarcal »

milon wrote:This is probably a terrible idea from a performance standpoint, but it would be possible for ROS to monitor for access to "C:\Program Files\" or "C:\Documents and Settings\" on systems where they're in different locations and reroute the access request.
The thing is...which is the benefict of losing so much performance?
BlackRabbit
Posts: 128
Joined: Sat Dec 22, 2012 7:36 am

Re: Question about "Documents and Settings\<user>" location

Post by BlackRabbit »

There is already a mechanism in Windows that relieves the programmer of the need to determine the correct path for a well-known folder:

SHGetSpecialFolderPath

Whether programmers are using it, as Angelus pointed out, is a different matter.
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