What Are the Different Windows "AppData" Folders for, Anyway?

Not really sure why some games save to documents and not Saved Games.

ReGeDIt.EXe

I love u so much Joe Thank youu <3

Such great info - thx!!

All of these folders could be avoided by simply tagging the file instead of the folder and sorting them in a separate database. This makes installing apps so much more annoying and difficult to wipe. I find files from uninstalled apps in folders that should be deleted constantly

I switched from mac to windows for work and I absolutely hate how confusing the file system is. It makes coding such a hassle because installations require so much more work

Bro why in my pc can't fine local low

I always use "appdata" instead of "%appdata%" to open the appdata folder with Win+R because "appdata" will open C:\Users\user\AppData instead of C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming

Thanks very much for that shortcut to %homepath%, didn't know that one. THe one I usually use is %userprofile% and it directs you to a slightly different view, it seems.

When I found out the system paths for most of these folders, I like to navigate to them that way to copy my saved game files.

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming — %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming will be %appdata%
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local — %userprofile%\AppData\Local will be %localappdata%
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\LocalLow — %userprofile%\AppData\LocalLow will be ... no idea, if someone else knows I"d love to hear in the comment replies from you.

turns out the shortcut for the appdata low folder is %localappdata%low

Nice to know that my Minecraft worlds would sync across a company network automatically 😂

Does anyone have a tip against all the unwanted document folders ?

90%devs:- Documents is the way to go

I think Windows folders are mystery until now, some programs files putting in different places and other putting in different places too.

well explained

Hey ThioJoe

There is a mobile game called geometry dash that got ported to pc and the place to find your save files is in appdata/local/geometryDash even though you will never need them unless you’re trying to back up your save files because that could be necessary

So app data is a communist

Thanks for this info. I had been wondering, and I wasn't too far off, especially in finding that there are no clear rules or enforcement, and a lot has to do with Microsoft backwardsism. Everything about this operating system screams complication, bloat, and bad decisions of the past being maintained perpetually...

Even though I understand very little about computers, this was easy to follow.
Thanks!

The bigger question is why does Microsoft hide AppData from the User by default. Non technical User might need to get data from the folders for backup or other reasons and game dev love to hide save games and game settings in the AppData folders.

LocalLow for Juno:New Origins

I know this coz I always download 100% complete saves for games for cultural reasons. If you know you know.

or they have heard about AppData when they were installing a minecraft forge mod

So we created over 100500 folders that do the same function, but you can't find all required files in one place

What is the AppData Folder in C:\Users\Default\AppData for exactly?

Thank gods, I am using a mac and I don't need to worry about all this nonsense

lol

Thanks. I really get the feeling there must be more elegant ways to design an OS, if we got the chance to start over. Maybe the whole hierarchy concept of directory trees and files could be replaced, especially as the physical placement of files on magnetic/optical storage media becomes irrelevant with SSDs. Maybe it could all become just data, with metadata tags.

I feel like most students know app data as the last hope for a lost/unsaved document

I find it very annoying that game saves are stored somewhere in AppData. It's not needed because I'm the only bugger that uses my PC!

{:o:O:}

Fun fact: %LOCALAPPDATA% var (which is typically used for caches) is added in Windows 7.

Very interesting video, thanks!

.config or etc in linux

I just don't understand what's the default one after all. I am making an app that will 99.99% never be used in these cloud-like systems. Is the roaming one the default after all?

Darn that's really annoying, all this hassle just because other people use a feature I'll probably never use, I don't even recall ever having a PC where I intentionally had more than one user set-up.

Also I really hate it when programs put stuff into documents or appdata, because at least to my knowledge that's always on C, a partition I'd normally want to reserve to just OS stuff. Some programs are real jerks about this though and put gigabytes worth of stuff in appdata or documents, completely bypassing that I deliberately chose to install them on another partition or harddrive.

very informative. good teaching material.

Im sure this will be useful someway somehow sometime.

Maybe when playing Trivial Persuit :/ ....

I currently have: 223 folders in Local, 212 folders in LocalLow, and 113 folders in Roaming. There is no rhyme or reason whatsoever to why most of these folders are in the places they are. I'm pretty sure most developers are just choosing arbitrarily.

Absolutely fucking nothing, because barely any devs bother with adhering to form.

ThioJoe Bring back the old days when there was no Windows Registry. Each program stored its settings in a *.ini file in its Program Files folder. Made it so easy to migrate an entire Windows setup to a new machine without having to reinstall every single program.

ThioJoe Tech Tip - make windows faster by installing little used programs, maintenance, etc, in a different user name. That way, they only run when you login as the "Maintenance" user, say once a week/month.

to annoy me

what is the "pron" directory for?

Oh my god imagine all the dumb bugs and side effects if the default wasn't Roaming

Because msft cant write a decent os:)

Like the dodgy system32 kludge.
And the bloated registry
And the clunky explorer

Just look at the windows update mess

Now I understand, thanks!