Windows Vista and FG

[Lukeduff]

Programs in Windows aren't supposed to write to the Program Files directories under any version of Windows since Windows 95 but Vista is especially hardcore about enforcing that restriction.

User documents and settings should be in C:\documents and settings\username\... (in XP) or c:\users\username\... (in Vista)

Fantasy Grounds likes to put things like your campaigns and such in Program Files. This isn't technically the right way to do things but works in XP. Under Vista, the OS redirects file system writes to a spot under the users home folder and it's in a really inconvenient hidden place, something like c:\users\username\virtualstore\program files\... which no regular user would ever find.

Vista is still a few months away for most people. I think Jan 30, 2007 is the release, but it'd be good to get ahead of the problem. And I think it'd be more convenient to have things in My Documents anyway.

Can we get a 1.0x patch that fixes this?

Btw, FG seems to run fine under Vista otherwise.

[Illrigger]

Yep, ran into this as well. Programs aren't supposed to store their data in the Program Files folder, and Vista's new security measures do some transparent redirection to the location you mentioned. It's definitely something that needs to be fixed, in 2.0 if not otherwise.

I too have found FG to work perfectly under Vista, and is perfecly workable once you figure out where your data lives.

[Shrp77]

A lot of programs use referential directing of file and folder paths (I use that technique, among others). Simply put, my programs aren't made to and will most likely never need to support individual user settings. Therefore the path's are set to a relative folder to where the application executable is located. I do not force the program files location, but the installer will default to it.

Personally I hate having the application data in any other location than the application executable or a subfolder thereof. The reasons stem from my Amiga days where taking a backup of a program meant making an LHA archive of the programs folder (mostly... some exceptions were present there too).

I don't know how Vista will behave with the mirroring system, but I hope it will also include the mirror location when someone zips up their program files application folder. (and no, I do not believe it's nescessary to secure the program files folder, nor that it's wrong to write data to that folder. The application can create its own application domain with a root in the application folder if security is such a bleeping scare... Windows Vista may yet proove to be the best of the worst windows OS's due to their security restrictions... Time will tell...)

[Illrigger]

Writing to application folders hasn't been the preferred method of use for 5 years on desktop apps, and even longer on business ones. This is on ALL operating systems, not just Windows - *NIX OSes were beginning to do this back in the '90s. The fact that YOU don't like to do it is really no excuse for not following standards - something MS themselves are finally getting their heads around.

Lazy applications will work just fine with Vista, either as FG is done with it mirroring files to the user folder, or by running with elevated privledges. But it becomes ovbious very quickly who's not playing by the rules when an app doesn't run right and you end up having to verify elevation every time you start it up, and that's bad for business because people will immediately wonder why they have to risk they system security to run said app just because some dev somewhere can't be bothered to program to standards. After all, doing so isn't just annoying because of the extra click every time it runs, but it potentially exposes your system to OTHER security risks because the application, if compromised, had the ability to a lot of nasty things that it shouldn't be able to do.

[Vroomfogle]

Personally I hate having the application data in any other location than the application executable or a subfolder thereof. The reasons stem from my Amiga days where taking a backup of a program meant making an LHA archive of the programs folder (mostly... some exceptions were present there too).

It's much more efficient to have to backup or archive a single directory tree (user settings) then GB's of Program data, all of which can be re-installed from original media or downloadable install program. I don't see too many compelling reasons why you would want to zip up a whole program's directory. It's not a good backup as it would not retrieve registry settings. On Unix it doesn't guarantee you have restored all dependencies.

But then again, I'm the last person who's going to make people do things a certain way. People should be able to do whatever they want with their computer and the OS should provide a way to do it, even if it's non-standard. It sounds like Vista is providing a decent solution that will be backwards compatible as well as providing a mechanism for those who want to run it differently.

[Tailz Silver Paws]

I must say, I would like to see some form of "Gaming Content" folder in the "My Documents" folder. That way when editing and saving out images and documetns and what not I just drop them into a folder in My Documents folder, instead of searching around in a program folder.

But thats just me.

Currently I just use short cut icons I have made that I put on the desktop.