File locations documented where?

Posted: 10-27-2006, 06:02 AM

Michael A. Covington

Guest
Posts: n/a

Compared to 2000 and XP, Vista has radically rearranged files and folders
such as My Documents, Start Menu, and so forth.

Two questions:

(1) Is there a handy comparison chart anywhere that compares the new system
to the old one?

(2) If an installation package tries to write in, say, Documents and
Settings\Start Menu, is Vista smart enough to redirect it to where Start
Menu really is?

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Responses to "File locations documented where?"

Rick Rogers

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Posts: n/a

Re: File locations documented where?

Posted: 10-27-2006, 11:29 AM

Hi Michael,

1) No chart that I am aware of, but mostly it is the user profile folders
that were moved. This was done chiefly because of the way user security is
implemented by keeping user work environments separate from the system
processes.

2) Installers generally use variables defined in either the program or the
system environmental variables to determine installation paths, they are
generally not hard coded.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

"Michael A. Covington" <look@ai.uga.edu.for.address> wrote in message
news:%23siRmUY%23GHA.4388@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

> Compared to 2000 and XP, Vista has radically rearranged files and folders
> such as My Documents, Start Menu, and so forth.
>
> Two questions:
>
> (1) Is there a handy comparison chart anywhere that compares the new
> system to the old one?
>
> (2) If an installation package tries to write in, say, Documents and
> Settings\Start Menu, is Vista smart enough to redirect it to where Start
> Menu really is?
>
>

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Alexander Suhovey

Guest
Posts: n/a

Re: File locations documented where?

Posted: 10-27-2006, 01:04 PM

> -----Original Message-----

> From: Michael A. Covington [mailto:look@ai.uga.edu.for.address]
> Posted At: Friday, October 27, 2006 9:03 AM
> Posted To: microsoft.public.windows.vista.general
> Conversation: File locations documented where?
> Subject: File locations documented where?
>
> (1) Is there a handy comparison chart anywhere that compares
> the new system
> to the old one?
>
> (2) If an installation package tries to write in, say, Documents and
> Settings\Start Menu, is Vista smart enough to redirect it to
> where Start
> Menu really is?
>

1) %USEREPROFILE% has been changed from "%systemdrive%\Documents and
Settings\username" to c:\Users\username.

From the Scott Hanselman's blog that has been quoted several times
already in this NG, comes following comparsion table (all paths relative
to %userprofile%):

Was Now

Application Data \AppData\Roaming
Cookies \AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies
Local Settings \AppData\Local
My Documents \Documents
NetHood \AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Network Shortcuts
PrintHood \AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Printer
Shortcuts
Recent \AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent
SendTo \AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo
Start Menu \AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
Templates \AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Templates

2) If insatller is using environment variables (which it should) don't
see any problem here. If it has folder names hardcoded, most probably no
problem either since Vista has several hidden symlincs under
%userprofile% to handle exactly this scenario.
Read more on reparce points, junctions and symlinks here:
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/MoreOn...rsePoints.aspx
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/Window...ngMyDocumentsT
oAnotherDrive.aspx

I'm sure it is documented by Microsoft somewhere in SDK or Technet or
MSDN or WHDC too.

--
Alexander Suhovey

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Michael A. Covington

Guest
Posts: n/a

Re: File locations documented where?

Posted: 10-27-2006, 04:01 PM

Many thanks! That's exactly the information I was looking for. Hidden
symlinks especially.

We all know that proper installation packages *should* ask the OS where the
special folders are. But there is a lot of amateurish software out there
that doesn't. I've even encountered things that can't deal with C:\WINNT vs
C:\WINDOWS.

All the best,
Michael

"Alexander Suhovey" <asuhovey@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:018301c6f9c0$693adc20$8d01a8c0@a4vision.org.. .

>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Michael A. Covington [mailto:look@ai.uga.edu.for.address]
>> Posted At: Friday, October 27, 2006 9:03 AM
>> Posted To: microsoft.public.windows.vista.general
>> Conversation: File locations documented where?
>> Subject: File locations documented where?
>>
>> (1) Is there a handy comparison chart anywhere that compares
>> the new system
>> to the old one?
>>
>> (2) If an installation package tries to write in, say, Documents and
>> Settings\Start Menu, is Vista smart enough to redirect it to
>> where Start
>> Menu really is?
>>
>
> 1) %USEREPROFILE% has been changed from "%systemdrive%\Documents and
> Settings\username" to c:\Users\username.
>
> From the Scott Hanselman's blog that has been quoted several times
> already in this NG, comes following comparsion table (all paths relative
> to %userprofile%):
>
> Was Now
>
> Application Data \AppData\Roaming
> Cookies \AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies
> Local Settings \AppData\Local
> My Documents \Documents
> NetHood \AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Network Shortcuts
> PrintHood \AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Printer
> Shortcuts
> Recent \AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent
> SendTo \AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo
> Start Menu \AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
> Templates \AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Templates
>
> 2) If insatller is using environment variables (which it should) don't
> see any problem here. If it has folder names hardcoded, most probably no
> problem either since Vista has several hidden symlincs under
> %userprofile% to handle exactly this scenario.
> Read more on reparce points, junctions and symlinks here:
> http://www.hanselman.com/blog/MoreOn...rsePoints.aspx
> http://www.hanselman.com/blog/Window...ngMyDocumentsT
> oAnotherDrive.aspx
>
> I'm sure it is documented by Microsoft somewhere in SDK or Technet or
> MSDN or WHDC too.
>
> --
> Alexander Suhovey
>

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