Please stay away from my windows!

[Yammo]

Probably going to draw 100 flames on this one...

...but this is my pov and I need to get it off my chest.

 

I really did get a bit miffed when I realized bulky stuff like screenshots were

being saved under "users" on my System-drive, instead of onto the drive I

assigned for the install of the game.

 

While I usually prefer programs to stay in the folders I assign to them, I

don't really mind if ini-files, etc, gets saved under users. But when it comes

to bulky stuff like screenshots, I really think it would be (if nothing else)

polite to at least ask the user where he/she would prefer the data to be

stored as some of us have SSDs(you know that drive that is expensive, fast

but has VERY limited space) as system-drives that we wish to keep for

system stuff ONLY.

 

</rant>

 

And before I get jumped with moving the documents folder or making a

subst they can both end up crashing programs so I'd rather not.

 

[Nate--IRL--]

I can sympathise - but basically this was forced upon the sim, due to the amount of problems people were having with UAC.

 

Nate

[PeterP]

Please understand that this is how windows maintains different users - it is only allowed for a user to write in his own account to prevent problems.

 

You are barking at the wrong Moon - write a letter to Microsoft!

Edited June 4, 2012 by PeterP

[HiJack]

Get FRAPS and save your screens wherever you want!

[Cp]

You could move the screenshot folder from your user folder to the install folder of the sim and then create a symlink back to your user folder, thus the computer thinks it saves the screenshots in the user folder but instead they go in your install folder.

[Mouse]

Understand that this is the way things have done in Windows, Unix, OS X, and Linux for a long while. From a software design standpoint, the correct way to store user-created files in a multi-user environment is in the given user's home folders.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_directory

 

You're welcome to kvetch about it, but understand that ED should not abandon good software design principals just because a few users have an atypical configuration. And yes, whether you like it or not, using a solid-state drive as you are is currently an atypical configuration. I elected not to use them when I built my system about 6 months ago for that exact reason.

 

The solution is not for ED to change their system. You should consider alternative software for taking screenshots, which may allow you to save the files in an atypical location outside of your user folder.

 

Alternatively you may search for a way to change the location of user folders so that they are not on the SSD. I cannot say if this is possible but I would guess that it is. (If you can network boot 16 computers from a single master drive kept in the closet, well, why not?) Assuming that it is possible, this would be the "correct" way to configure your system.

 

In summary: it is ED's responsibility to make sure their software is well-behaved, meaning that it stays within the user folder. It is your responsibility to make sure the user folders are located on the physical drive where you want well-behaved software to save files.

[joey45]

After you exit the game move the screenshots onto a different drive.

[cichlidfan]

After you exit the game move the screenshots onto a different drive.

 

Get a bigger SSD so it is not a crisis if you have stuff collect there for a day or three.;)

[Double_D]

Get a bigger SSD so it is not a crisis if you have stuff collect there for a day or three.;)

 

Or after collecting the SS's move them to another drive and free up the Screenies..in the user account thats what I do...:music_whistling:

[kiss4luna]

you can relocate that system folder to anywhere you like, just right click the saved games folder and choose properties,

[Daniel M]

Symbolic link the folder to a non ssd drive?

Edit: though i do understand the frustration, it's not that high of a priority IMHO

Edited June 5, 2012 by Daniel M
edit:

[EtherealN]

What ED has done here is, as has been mentioned, the standard and "correct" way to do things. Screenshots that you take while in your account are part of user data, thus go into user folder.

 

If you have an abnormal configuration where this causes a problem, you can solve this easily:

 

Right-click the Saved Games folder in your user directory, and select Properties, like so:

 

Then find Location tab, select to move it, and then decide where you want it.

 

Essentially, User files are part of the system drive, that's how the OS itself is designed, but as indicated above you can move things around to suit your configuration. No need for ED to start using non-standard practices. Rather, you should keep some user files in mind when deciding on the size of your system drive, because Windows (and most flavors of Unix, Linux, BSD, OSX etcetera) is specifically designed to work like this.

 

Another possibility is to make a simple cronned bat that moves data-intensive stuff over to some other location a little now and then.

Edited June 5, 2012 by EtherealN

[Outlaw24]

EtheraIn, nice job with the explanation and scree shots.

[PoleCat]

What ED has done here is, as has been mentioned, the standard and "correct" way to do things. Screenshots that you take while in your account are part of user data, thus go into user folder.

 

If you have an abnormal configuration where this causes a problem, you can solve this easily:

 

Right-click the Saved Games folder in your user directory, and select Properties, like so:

 

Then find Location tab, select to move it, and then decide where you want it.

 

Essentially, User files are part of the system drive, that's how the OS itself is designed, but as indicated above you can move things around to suit your configuration. No need for ED to start using non-standard practices. Rather, you should keep some user files in mind when deciding on the size of your system drive, because Windows (and most flavors of Unix, Linux, BSD, OSX etcetera) is specifically designed to work like this.

 

Another possibility is to make a simple cronned bat that moves data-intensive stuff over to some other location a little now and then.

 

Spot on again.. Nothing to see here, never was. Simple user misunderstanding...please move along. :D

 

Out

[Yammo]

I can sympathise - but basically this was forced upon the sim, due to the amount of problems people were having with UAC.

 

Nate

 

Thanks for a sane reply.

I guess I can understand that p.o.v.

 

~S~

[Yammo]

This was a mere rant as I don't agree with this being a "good practise" and I

had to get it off my chest. :) Case is closed as I've scripted the bulky stuff to

be bounced off to the ED folder on my raid at the time of writing my post.

 

 

Thanks everyone for your helping attempts... 10 out of 10 for effort...

Though, most of you might benefit from reading the full post before replying next time. :)

 

 

~S~

:pilotfly:

[nemises]

;~)..you get what you paid for :P

[Irregular programming]

This was a mere rant as I don't agree with this being a "good practise" and I

had to get it off my chest. :) Case is closed as I've scripted the bulky stuff to

be bounced off to the ED folder on my raid at the time of writing my post.

 

 

Thanks everyone for your helping attempts... 10 out of 10 for effort...

Though, most of you might benefit from reading the full post before replying next time. :)

 

 

~S~

:pilotfly:

 

Sorry but there is nothing to agree or disagree on, it is best practice to use the User folder when writing to the disk. The only way not to have it that way is if you get another operating system.

 

You then for no reason refuse to fix your problem (files taking space on your ssd) which easily done by moving the folder as already described. If you don't want to do it because of religious reasons or whatever fine but don't complain when the actual solution is given to you.

Edited June 6, 2012 by Irregular programming

[hsth]

The solution for the relocation works fine for folders like My Documents, My Music etcetera. All MS Office will look for your files in the right place after relocating these directories.

But, DCS doesn't. After relocating the Saved Games directory you'll find that after the first time you've started DCS you'll have two Saved Games directories. Despite that the first line in the me.log says that it uses the new location for Saved Games it also creates a new one in the users directory.

And it keeps both directories updated.

[Rusty_M]

I relocated my user's folder to another drive, and I only have one saved games folder. That resides on my storage drive, not my OS drive.

[EtherealN]

The solution for the relocation works fine for folders like My Documents, My Music etcetera. All MS Office will look for your files in the right place after relocating these directories.

But, DCS doesn't. After relocating the Saved Games directory you'll find that after the first time you've started DCS you'll have two Saved Games directories. Despite that the first line in the me.log says that it uses the new location for Saved Games it also creates a new one in the users directory.

And it keeps both directories updated.

 

Unable to replicate.

 

I moved my SavedGames directory to D:\, worked perfectly, and no "extra" Saved Games folder has been created anywhere.

 

Are you being confused by the fact that you can still find the Saved Games folder when clicking your user account? That does not mean there is a duplicate folder there, it only means Windows is placing the usual link in the usual place. The "duplicate" Saved Games folder is a link to (in my case) D:\SavedGames. There are not two copies of it. This is why it "keeps both directories updated"; there is only one directory, however, the directory is displayed by Windows in several locations. (This is called a symbolic link, mount-point or any of a multitude of other things depending on which OS you use. You could, for example, use similar functions to have an SSD contain only C:\Windows, while everything else on C:\ gets mounted onto another physical hard drive; in which case C:\Program Files and D:\Program Files (for an example) could be exactly the same thing. ;) )

 

 

(Yes, this is after running a DCS: World mission.)

 

You can still use C:\Users\Daniel\Saved Games\. The operating system will understand what I want, since it knows where I have set the location of that folder. So at present, C:\Users\Daniel\Saved Games\ actually means D:\SavedGames\ . If I brose to either of those two adresses, I end up in the same place; which is a location on the D:\ drive.

Edited June 6, 2012 by EtherealN

[hsth]

Thanks for your reply, it now makes sense what's happening.

[Chrischn89]

Different question: Why is there no option to set the default folders when trying to load/save a .trk file?

 

I hate to naviagte through my whole harddisc everytime just to get to the folder where I installed DCS:W..!

[Tango]

Probably going to draw 100 flames on this one...

...but this is my pov and I need to get it off my chest.

 

I really did get a bit miffed when I realized bulky stuff like screenshots were

being saved under "users" on my System-drive, instead of onto the drive I

assigned for the install of the game.

 

While I usually prefer programs to stay in the folders I assign to them, I

don't really mind if ini-files, etc, gets saved under users. But when it comes

to bulky stuff like screenshots, I really think it would be (if nothing else)

polite to at least ask the user where he/she would prefer the data to be

stored as some of us have SSDs(you know that drive that is expensive, fast

but has VERY limited space) as system-drives that we wish to keep for

system stuff ONLY.

 

</rant>

 

And before I get jumped with moving the documents folder or making a

subst they can both end up crashing programs so I'd rather not.

 

You buy a small drive, that's what you get. Welcome to 1995.

 

Best regards,

Tango.

[shelt]

Moving or deleting the screens isn't that big of an effort. Hard drive maintenance doesn't just apply to the smaller SSD's, the larger hard drives have really made people slack about cleaning old and unwanted files on a regular basis. It wasn't that long ago a 20GB hard drive was huge!