views:

21

answers:

2

With the new Windows 7 restrictions (well, new to Windows Vista anyways), we can no longer install demo projects to *%ProgramFilesFolder%\OurApplication\demo\* since restricted users will not be able to open and modify these projects.

Is there a "correct" place to install these files now?

The two alternatives that I am aware of would be:

  1. %AppDataFolder%\OurApplication\demo\
  2. %PersonalFolder%\OurApplication\demo\
    (in XP: %PersonalFolder% = My Documents)
+1  A: 

I'd lean towards %PersonalFolder%\OurApplication\demo\, since you're expecting users to open the files themselves. %AppDataFolder% is intended for (writable) data that's for the app's use (e.g., game maps, etc.)

Eric Brown
+1  A: 

Depending on whether you expect multiple accounts on a single machine to access these demo files, it may be better to modify the application to read from the public read-only location, and save a writable copy to the user's documents folder. There's little reason that this part should be done by the installer.

Michael Urman
After some discussion with colleagues we came up with basically the same conclusion. Install the original read-only to %AppDataFolder% and copy per-user as read-write on an as-need basis.
Rob Hunter