whats a good default install folder for a windows game?

i'm about to post beta 21 of Caveman with skinned meshes. But i noticed that in Inno setup, i'm installing to \program files(x86)\caveman.

i've had one user with issues caused by a corrupt UAC file and use of the program files directory.

Also, skyrim modding guides recommend moving steam out of the program file folder due to UAC issues, protected folders, having to run as admin, etc.

So installing to protected folders can cause issues.

So whats a good default non-protected folder to install under?

whats a good default install folder for a windows game?

i'm about to post beta 21 of Caveman with skinned meshes. But i noticed that in Inno setup, i'm installing to \program files(x86)\caveman.

i've had one user with issues caused by a corrupt UAC file and use of the program files directory.

Also, skyrim modding guides recommend moving steam out of the program file folder due to UAC issues, protected folders, having to run as admin, etc.

So installing to protected folders can cause issues.

So whats a good default non-protected folder to install under?

(multi user) application binaries should go into FOLDERID_ProgramFiles, application data should go into FOLDERID_ProgramData and user files (save games, settings, etc) should go into FOLDERID_LocalAppData.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb762188(v=vs.85).aspx

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd378457(v=vs.85).aspx

if you want to support legacy versions of Windows you can use the CSIDL equivalents

If you want non admin users to be able to modify the binaries you should default to FOLDERID_UserProgramFiles (single user installation) Available in Win7 and later, for Vista you can fall back to FOLDERID_LocalAppData and add \Programs or something to the path (You should never ever install multi user binaries in a location where non admins are able to modify them as that compromises the systems security), even if you do single user installation you may still want to share some or all data between users (if you have several gigabytes of levels, artwork, music, etc you probably don't want each user to need their own copy even if they each have their own binaries)

(multi user) application binaries should go into FOLDERID_ProgramFiles, application data should go into FOLDERID_ProgramData and user files (save games, settings, etc) should go into FOLDERID_LocalAppData.

so caveman.exe goes in ProgramFiles, all the meshes, textures, models, wavs, animations etc go in ProgramData, and savegames, and stuff that gets paged from disk like container content lists and explored local map bitmasks goes in LocalAppData (IE C:\users\current_user\appdata\local).

hmm... more work, and you can't find everything in one folder. but it gets you readonly binaries, shared data (probably irrelevant for caveman), and user data under the current_user folder for ease of backup purposes (i'd assume).

right now i put it all in a single caveman3 folder under programfiles. i haven't had any issues with this on my PC even though programfiles is protected. but then again, i only have one account on the PC, the admin account, which is what i use all the time. so i suppose i'm always running as admin.

also i haven't moved steam or skyrim, and have encountered no issues on my PC - i'm trying to muck with the skyrim install as little as possible while modding.

however, installing under programfiles, corrupt UAC files apparently can lead to the dreaded BEX error:

http://www.gamedev.net/topic/660329-whats-this-error-message-mean/

and fixing it its pretty ugly. cant find the link right now, but it involves un-hiding hidden folders and files and regedit and hkeys - you get the idea. way more than you want the user to have to go through to run your game.

so i was thinking, you could avoid this whole UAC issue by simply installing to an unprotected folder - IE somewhere other than program files. its a simple one line change in the Inno setup script.

OTOH, this means you're not doing it the MS way...

should i not worry about users with UAC issues?

You really want to install to program files by default, and require elevation to a trusted user for both installation and updates, and never load executable files (exe's, dll's, Java jar's, etc.) from any non-trusted location. This way no other untrusted piece of code can infect your program.

if by trusted you mean verisign, then i'm screwed, because i can't afford to verisign right now, so its all from "Unknown Publisher".