this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2024
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[–] [email protected] 147 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 49 points 5 months ago (15 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago (2 children)

You should never be expected to edit anything in /usr, /opt or /var. That's highly unusual. For which software did you have to do this?

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago

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.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

XDG Base Directory & XDG User Directories will help you immensely. At least, for the programs that follow the XDG specs. Also, check out XDG Ninja.

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[–] [email protected] 102 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (6 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 63 points 5 months ago (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 5 months ago

Selects separate drive for install

Adobe: "Imma, pretend I didn't see that"

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Always remember, C:\ProgramData is the eqivalent of /etc in Linux. If they don't know where to put/hide shit, but needs admin priviliges to edit and users can only read, you put it in C:\ProgramData.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

I think programdata is closer to /usr/lib or maybe /var/lib.

You almost never see config files in programdata.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 months ago

Don't forget %USERPROFILE%/AppData/Local/Programs, where some programs get installed to because the developer doesn't want to make it a system wide installation.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, the Documents config file/dir pisses me off the most as well!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago (5 children)

Game save data? No, my documents.
Application config files? Again, my documents.
Temporary documents I don't care about keeping? Downloads, duh.
My actual documents? Desktop.
My desktop? Turned icons off because it was too messy.

Just another day using Windows...

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago

System wide config for an application? Lets put that under C:\users*?????

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[–] [email protected] 69 points 5 months ago (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 52 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It could also be stored in the registry.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 5 months ago (5 children)

Oooh the registry is even more fun.

  • HKLM, HKCU? These are statements dreamt up by the utterly deranged
  • Store it in software, make your own root folder
  • Also for 32 bit programs there wow6432node
  • There's also the policies section, but this kind of makes sense to have it split off
  • Also make sure to follow the apple methodology of having multiple different key names like Apple, Apple inc., etc
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[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (5 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago

What you can find in dconf is well organized compared to what is inside of the regedit hell.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago (4 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago

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/

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Local is for regular apps, LocalLow is for depressed apps and Roaming is for high apps looking for munchies.

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 5 months ago (8 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

That's one thing I especially like about Flatpaks on the Linux side. Everything's in ~/.var.

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 5 months ago (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Any game can be used from a USB drive if that USB drive is running a live OS.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Or in /home/username/.applicationname/ if they want to be annoying.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 5 months ago (3 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

The setting you're looking for could be in %appdata% It could be in %localappdata% It could be in C:\ProgramData. It could be in the registry. It could be in HKLM. It could be in HKCU. It could be in any of the userdirs. It could be in the application's directory.

HA! Joke's on you, it was an envvar all along!

True story.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 5 months ago (1 children)

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!

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 5 months ago (8 children)

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

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 5 months ago

Mozilla products:

"What is this .config folder you talk about?"

[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Despite what developers do at the end of the day, there are conventions for application directories on every OS.

I just use the directories crate in Rust.

https://github.com/dirs-dev/directories-rs

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 months ago (4 children)

windows is simple, all configs are keys accesible via reddit

[–] [email protected] 23 points 5 months ago

[Deleted]

^half^ ^the^ ^time^ ^its^ ^been^ ^deleted^ ^because^ ^Spez^ ^is^ ^a^ ^greedy^ ^pigboy^

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago (4 children)

Takes you to the roaming subfolder though

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago

They don't have config files in Windows. Apps just throw things everywhere without rhyme of reason

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago

Tell that to the file I just dropped in to ~/.steam/debian-installation/steamapps/compatdata/1086940/pfx

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago
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