Bug Report: Data file location not respecting user choice

[KalTorak18]

I've recently installed Hero Lab for the first time and during the installation I told it to use a path under a secondary drive for it's data, but near the end of the installation it was reporting a path that was outside of this directory and even drive. I figured this directory, since it was located under C:\programdata, would only contain configuration data and wasn't that worried - not that I had the option of changing it. But, when I downloaded the main content for Pathfinder it was placed in this directory. I have very limited space on C:, but a lot of space on the drive where I told the installation to install my hero lab. Why is the main data content of the program not respecting my choice?

Please give a way to change where the data files for your program download. If you ask the user where they want to install, you should put the majority of your application data in that folder.

As for myself, I'll try creating a reparse point in that directory and see if your application will still be able to read/write the data.

[Colen]

We used to keep data files in the installation directory like you expected, but ever since Vista Microsoft has specifically discouraged this - if we put the files there, it causes a lot of trouble for users. The c:\ProgramData folder is now Microsoft's recommended place to put content like that Hero Lab downloads.

You can change the default location where Hero Lab looks for those files, however - open the Hero Lab manual, go to the "Miscellaneous Details" page, and scroll down to the "Folder Locations" section for more information on doing exactly that.

[KalTorak18]

Originally Posted by Colen

You [b]can[b] change the default location where Hero Lab looks for those files, however - open the Hero Lab manual, go to the "Miscellaneous Details" page, and scroll down to the "Folder Locations" section for more information on doing exactly that.

Thanks, I missed that there. It might be a nice option to be able to choose this folder location at install time. Maybe via an "advanced" install option or something.

Thanks again.

[Duggan]

Just to raise this up, apparently Windows 8.1 makes the ProgramData directory read-only for dropping files into, which means you can't drop in a new file from the file folder. *sigh* So Microsoft's brilliant idea is going to cause issues once more.