context is that it’s a folder on Windows that isn’t shown by default so you have to open the “run” menu then type it in. Like a cheatcode for a computer.
or at least that’s how it felt the first time I found it when I was like 12 trying to find my Minecraft screenshots
One public and one for thr current user?
Not quite!
Suppose you have an account in a library or university or something like that where you can log-in to whatever machine and still have all of your files and installed applications.
In such a situation %appdata% is the same on all machines. Basically when you log into a machine the %appdata% folder is mounted from the network (the usual directories such as My Documents are mounted the same way).
The %LocalAppData% is never shared, instead, and is specific of that machine. If you login again in the same machine, your files are still there, but if you use another pc you get another folder.
That can be used to have machine-specific configuration files (in LocalAppData) and user-specific configuration files (in AppData).
Windows is weirder than it looks like on the surface!
It’s also worth noting that nearly nobody uses %appdata% that way anymore. It’s not even synced by default with enterprise OneDrive. And roaming documents folders need specific setup by your admin as well. Most don’t because it complicates shit. They’ll usually just give each user a dedicated private folder on a network drive and mount that at login, or they’ll be even lazier and use OneDrive to sync across devices without all the network drive hoops.
Also some programs, including some Microsoft developed ones, will install into %appdata% to bypass the need to have local admin rights to install for all users. On one hand it’s handy. On the other it makes blocking users from installing shit more of a pain. On the third hand it makes it real annoying to manage drive space when every goddamn user gets a separate Teams install by default.
I wouldn’t have so much of a problem with all of this if:
A: It was information provided clearly to the user, including after install and
B: There was a publicly and clearly standardized process for how the user should be expected to interact with those files.
Sometimes games will hide screenshots and export data there where others will lose their shit if everything isn’t very carefully handled. Mod folders, user music, save files, screenshots, controller configs… These are things that are now in tens of thousands of games and everyone can just sort of choose whatever they’re in the mood for and no one bats an eye.
It would just be nice if you didn’t have to go investigating on PCGamingWiki just to check for basic info.
Well on windows you can install shit anywhere, I don’t know if there is something similar to linux’s noexec (but that is handled at mount point level). In the old days I used to have a usb drive with “portable” versions of the applications that I wanted to use at school. (We weren’t obviously allowed to install anything, but you could run anything)
Anyways, security is hard, windows is confusing 👍