To be honest, it is quite complicated now as well with all of the proprietary software
To be honest, it is quite complicated now as well with all of the proprietary software
To be honest, it is quite complicated now as well with all of the proprietary software
This is the "appdata" folder, this is where all the application's data goes.
\
\ So whats the "Programs" folder then?
\
\ This is also where the application's data and files go.
\
\ But I thought thats the "Programs x86" folder.
\
\ This is also where the application's data and files go.
\
\ Ok whats "Program Files" then?
\
\ This is also where the application's data and files go.
\
\ So my config file is in either one if those 4?
\
\ No thats in the "Documents" folder, obviously.
Windows program data file structure has always been the wild west.
Don’t forget about the hidden ProgramData directory at the root of the file system. Ableton Live likes to install there for some ungodly reason.
Yeah, the Documents config file/dir pisses me off the most as well!
Don't forget that appdata nowadays has 3 sub folders, local, locallow, and roaming.
Also there's C:\programdata
Also some programs just store it in the user folder, the documents folder, or games/ my games folder if they are a game.
It could also be stored in the registry.
Oooh the registry is even more fun.
What the fuck is local low? I don't understand. Local is Billy G's jizz... I get that... And Roaming is for poor plebs. But why LocalLow? Is it like cache? But I have seens games saving their save files there. I don't understand
The folders actually do make sense.
Roaming: this data can be moved between machines in a domain if you have a roaming profile. E.g. go to another workstation and your browser configuration is the same? Means it's in Roaming.
Local: this data will not be synchronized between machines when you roam. This could be your browser's cache.
LocalLow: like local, but for applications that are "low integrity", like Internet Explorer. These folders have special properties. https://helgeklein.com/blog/internet-explorer-in-protected-mode-how-the-low-integrity-environment-gets-created/
And half the time you'll find it in the registry too. Linux has proven quite well that an OS doesn't need a registry.
Oh, and what's with ProgramData and AppData being two completely different things. I understand the difference between the two directories, but there is no difference between a program and an app. Everywhere else it's Machine/User.
Linux has proven quite well that an OS doesn't need a registry.
Gnomes dconf would like to have a word with you. It's really interesting how the Gnome people seem to get rid of every useful feature as it might confuse the user or be complex, but on the other hand add this registry-like anti-feature to make the system just as unmanageable as Windows.
Oh that setting is super easy to change, just go to run, type in regedit, expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE then just scroll until you find CLSID-73838-abf83-c758d57-87a90ba, set the value to zero and reboot!
Tell that to the file I just dropped in to ~/.steam/debian-installation/steamapps/compatdata/1086940/pfx
I feel mildly aroused when I see a program or a game that collects everything in it's folder and can be used from a USB drive. Some paid, industrial grade software leaves so much traces and depends on so much different hidden files and keys it's making me sick.
Any game can be used from a USB drive if that USB drive is running a live OS.
Or if you just symlink /usr, /opt, and /home to that usb drive. You may be asking why you wouldn't just mount partitions on the usb drive to those locations. This is not a question I will be answering
Or in /home/username/.applicationname/ if they want to be annoying.
This should be considered a war crime, and doubly so when they don't even have the decency to prefix it with a dot (looking at you Golang). It's my home folder, not a dumping grounds for random trash.
%appdata%
Takes you to the roaming subfolder though
Most configs should be in the roaming directory, since you'd usually expect them to roam between computers on a domain. The local directory is only for stuff that doesn't make sense to sync to other computers - things like caches, configs specific to that individual PC, etc.
Not that it matters for home users, as home users generally aren't using Active Directory with roaming profiles.
Everyone knows the real power of configuration on Windows is regedit.
Let's not pretend regedit is a good thing, it is littered with unreadable keys and has terrible UI and UX. And it requires root privileges to edit anything.
I believe one of the worst disservice Windows has done to the entire world is to make people desensitized with UAC. Every single action you do need root privileges, install app, changing config, people would just click allow whenever this thing pops up...
This means any program can easily inject rootkit into Windows during install, without the users noticing a thing, like LoL.
not seen in this comic: the linux file isn't where the comic/manual/internet nerds says it should be, and there's no realistic way to find it
To this day, I still don't know how to set a path variable permanently in any Linux distro
export PATH=$PATH:/mypath1:/mypath2
in ~/.profile
. Means "add :/mypath1:/mypath2
to what is already in $PATH." If you need the entire system to be aware, set or update it in /etc/environment
with PATH=...
I do feel like setting environment variable on linux is not as intuitive as on windows, but after I setup my workflow, I realized I never have the need to manually set any environmental variable besides in flatseal.
Maybe you have a specific use case for it?
Some people have diacritics and spaces in their usernames, which wreaks havoc for badly written programs accessing AppData or folders in the user's "home" directory, such as Documents. And there are lots of such programs.
When setting up Windows, use a short and memorable, DOS-compatible username, and then change it later (the home folder will still have the old name). You can then move indiidual Libraries (Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures and Videos) to the root of D:\ too.
This isn't really accurate for either side. For Linux, I've had crap shove configs in ~, /etc, /var, at least.
On Windows, it could be literally anywhere or in the registry.
The idea of the registry is so freaking nice. Imagine if all the configs of a system could be changed through a centralized and consistent API.
That's one thing I especially like about Flatpaks on the Linux side. Everything's in ~/.var.
Which unfortunately also don't follow xdg-dir specification...
Mozilla products:
"What is this .config folder you talk about?"
Have you found appdata/local/Application Data
? It's a "conjunction point" that you can only find via the command line, and only exists for backwards compatibility. It points to appdata/
... Do not EVER try to gain access over all your files in appdata/
. It'll break due to that conjunction point.
There are symlinks in Windows all over the place for backwards compatibility. Just look at "Documents and Settings", it's a symlink to ”Users".
Yet, you still have to install the same libraries with every app over and over, even though they can be shared. Why? Because Windows has no sense of default library locations, except for the things it absolutely needs to work.
windows is simple, all configs are keys accesible via reddit
[Deleted]
half the time its been deleted because Spez is a greedy pigboy
Linux is confusing for non IT people looking for program settings. It might be in share, local or config or hidden somewhere. On W 10 I just look under ProgramData. Maybe W11 is different. But Linux application devs need to agree on a single place. As users sometimes need to access it for plugins and resources.
That is what the xdg standard and file hierarchy standard are for.
You mean the 2 ProgramData folders? Altho who the hell puts config stuff there? Anyways, the 2 official settings apps, the 3 AppData folders and then the registry for every little thing Microsoft doesn't want you to edit for whatever reason? And then the countless 3rd party config apps for every device aiming to make this process easier? Yea I totally don't Google where to toggle stuff on windows as step #1, noo... And W11 just has a slightly better 2nd official settings app, so sadly not too different.
Also who the hell puts config stuff on Linux into /local or /share? It was always in ~/.config (personal) or /etc (system wide) from my experience.
This is major league bullshit tho.
On linux, where the config file for a specific program is, can vary annoyingly greatly depending on what distro you're using and sometimes the same config file exists in several places and somehow certain parts of the configuration parameters get taken from several of those files, so if you think you've found what the actual config file should be and remove the duplicates, suddenly the program uses defaults or doesn't even work at all.
Yup. Is it in /usr /var /etc or /opt? Maybe in some hidden home folder? Sure, you can Google it, but there's no guarantee you'll find the right answer.
There are only a handful of places Windows sticks stuff, and it's pretty predictable.
Generally /usr should be managed by the package manager, /etc is for global custom configs and the user home is user specific.
/var shouldn't really be config, mostly logs or webservers for some reason.
Disagree. Take game saves on windows. They can be in appdata\local, appdata\roaming, documents\company-name, documents\savedgames\company-name I'm sure there are more.
TLDR; Windows crap, I love Linux
Long read ahead, this resulted in a pretty big rant, but I feel better now:
Windows has way more silly places. From registry to ini files, assemblies, common files, services, drivers...it's everywhere.
Do you know how an MSI packages for software installation work? Let me tell you, it's a mess. An utter and complete garbage format. A database with hundreds of buggy functions, empty lines and internal inconsistencies. There wasn't even a way to create them comfortably without paying for expensive software back then. Yea, im looking at you, flexera admin studio.
I automated hundreds of custom software installations on 2000 clients from windows 2000 to XP to Windows 7 to Windows 10... for >10 years, so I know what I'm talking about.
On Linux 99% of apps save global settings in /etc and usersettings in /home/user/.* or the newer way XDG_CONFIG_HOME.
But since all is a file on Linux every config can simply be copied to restore or backup settings. Almost every tool has man pages. How hard is it to run man tool and read the specifics if you need help? Windows? Sometimes you got some help files in a strange format (.hlp?). Other then that, start the browser and ask Google.
Linux package managing since 2003 has been better then it ever has been on Windows to this day.
One command to update all components? Packages will be installed and removed automatically to fulfill the dependencies of the software you want to install? Every package is build by a trusty maintainer of the OS instead of some overworked windows engineer that needs to create profit.
Do you know how Deb files work? They are simpel zips of the folder structure and files the software consists of. A textfile with metadata like maintainer, name, version and, very important: dependencies. Last but not least there are a two or three files that can contain scripts that need to be executed prior or past installation. That's it. And you can do everything with it.
On Windows you often are forced to find the right combination of weird parameters to ensure a program starts. commandlines like "c:\windows\powershell.exe -e cmd /c program name", happen way more often then you would expect.
On Linux I get: Global package manager and updates with trusted packages, no telemetry, more safety, no ads, better privacy...and many more.
My personal opinion: I don't understand how people can even question the superiority of Linux for personal devices.