[Tinker]

Why do games create a new folder in my documents for your profile?

Right now I have Vegas2 / BF2142 / Arma folders in there.

Do they have to be in these places, or can I shift them into the main game folders in program files?

[GrimeyAK]

Those may be the places where the game stores save files and config files. If you put the folders into Program Files or something, you may not be able to use those game saves/configs.

[Tinker]

I can appreciate that. But with over 30 games installed here, why do these 3 have to be different? I don`t see the logic in creating these new placements. They should be in there own game folder. But as a query, I wondered if i can move them, if I know were to redirect the base search maybe.

[Dannik]

Borrowed from Wikipedia:

Quote

"My Games" is becoming an increasingly common place for games (especially those published by Microsoft Game Studios) to store a player's saved game and settings files. This is supposed to make it easier for a user to keep their saved games if they uninstall a game, and if they eventually migrate their files to a newer computer (using the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard, for example). For networks with a shared "My Documents" [see Group Policy below], computers that have copies of the same game installed often can not be running the same game at the same time. Microsoft's TweakUI does not include the ability to repath the "My Games" folder.

It's for ease of access and consistency, or at least that's the semi-official reasoning.

[Tinker]

Well all i can see is that i agreed to install said games to programs files. Not once did i see i would have these files created in "MY" private documents. That`s my issue.

Not a worry.

[ROCO*AFZ*]

The real question is if you logged on as someone else.. would the files be saved in there my games... or in the one's who installed it.

It does make sense though. My documents also has my pictures. It would make sense to save YOUR private control config and saved games so another user doesn't delete it.

[Dannik]

ROCO*AFZ*, on Aug 2 2008, 10:26 PM, said:

The real question is if you logged on as someone else.. would the files be saved in there my games... or in the one's who installed it.

In every case I can recall, when installing a game that uses the My Documents to store your game info, the installer asks if you want to make the game available to you, or all users. If just you, other users don't get the shortcut installed, though they could possibly* find and run the game, but My Documents is per profile, so the game folders are also per profile.

* If the game relies on registry entries to run, another user account may or may not be able to run it, depending on which registry tree the entries are installed in.

[Rocky]

It would be good if all games used the same location, it would stop the "where do I find my game saves" posts that litter every gaming community. But it's a headache right now because depending on the individual game, and also the OS (XP or Vista for example) the save location could be in one of 3 (or more) locations - if I remember correctly....

The answer is maybe Steam's latest initiative of saving your profile on their servers instead of your HD.

[GrimeyAK]

I actually really like Valve's idea for Steam Cloud. It just means that I can play a game on my desktop and when I go home for any break from school I can pick up any game where I left off with my laptop.

[Sup]

Just like dannik said, ease of use.

And no, you can't move them -- the game is going to be looking for that path when it needs to open those saves, if they aren't there it won't work.

If you just don't want to look at them, right click -> properties on the folder and set them as hidden. Naturally, you'll need to show hidden documents in the folder and uncheck that to get them back, if you change your mind.

[Brettzies]

This annoys me to no end. Mostly because I like to keep my C: drive(partition) as small as possible and keep all data for projects on a different drive. This extends to games and big programs as well. Music, pictures, etc. For me personally it keeps things very organized if I have a catastrophic system failure or just want to move a drive to a different computer. If you need to re-install your OS, it's easy to format the C: drive without losing anything important.

However, if more and more crap is being put in places I have no control over, it makes for very messy system. For instance, my MB died a few weeks ago and I'm just getting my new system back up and running. I put a bigger HD in and just took my old one as a 2nd drive. Everything important(projects, personal data, pictures, music) is in place and the OS and drive are clean.

I'm not opposed to having these type of "My" folders, I just want control over where they exist.

This post has been edited by Brettzies: 05 September 2008 - 09:52 AM

[Rocky]

Brettzies, on Sep 5 2008, 10:51 AM, said:

This annoys me to no end. Mostly because I like to keep my C: drive(partition) as small as possible and keep all data for projects on a different drive.

Ditto, me too, hence my annoyance to discover my 60Gb C partition was down to on 17Gb free because some video editing app had been using a my doc folder for temporary files and not deleting them. Too many programs do that without asking first.

[Buehgler_AS]

This is just a result of M$ and developers recognizing that computers can (and should) be usable by more than one person, and there should be some hint of protection (aka access control) between users. So in my opinion it makes good sense to actually store user specific data under a users "home directory" (aka MyDocuments).

For those that do not like having MyDocuments on C (and I am one of those people) just right click on your MyDocuments folder, go to properties and you will find the option to move it to whatever location you would like. Now why M$ chooses to hide basic functionality like this in such an obscure corner of the interface I will leave as an exercise for the reader

[Rocky]

Good point mate.

[Brettzies]

That's pretty cool actually. I wish I could move the whole "Documents and Settings" folder though. Reminds me of when I work at studios with Linux. Everyone has a home dir from the network so you can pretty much jump on any computer, log on, and it willl have all your prefs for 3d apps, desktop settings, email, etc.

Doc and Settings Dir = 1.01 GBs
UsernameDir = 830 megs
MyDocsDir = 87 megs

This post has been edited by Brettzies: 05 September 2008 - 06:41 PM