jrv
Forum Guru
[/QUOTE]Yes. What has that got to do with anything I posted?
Perhaps you might care to do some research on "user profiles" in Windows.
Unrestricted bloating of an individual user's profile in Windows (any version since Windows NT) leads to a general slowdown of Windows, in particular a slow down in loading time. It significantly increases the probability of the profile becoming corrupted, which can really ruin your day.
Don't voluntarily save files in your c:\users\<username> folder. That includes: don't save files on your desktop. For the love of God don't create folders on your desktop. (Shortcuts are fine on the desktop; just put the actual files somewhere else.) Don't save files in your "Documents", "Pictures", "Videos" or "Music" folders (many programs will dump files there regardless; move them; many programs, although they will default to these folders, allow you to alter the preferences to select alternate locations). And don't install VASL files there.
The only reason not to follow the above advice is if you share the PC with other users (who don't have local administrator privileges), and you don't want them to be able to access your files (and you don't have an alternate location, e.g., a private folder on a network share).
Now, even if you follow the above advice to the absolute limit, your user profile will bloat, because Windows. That's not a reason to voluntarily contribute to the issue.
I did research user profiles. The only thing I found was that if you put a lot in your roaming profile directories in a situation where roaming profiles are used, things slow down. I can understand how that would work.
You seem to hold a very strong opinion on the matter, yet you don't seem to be able to explain on what basis you hold this opinion. Is there a specific place where I might find technical details on the nature of these misbehaviors? The only thing I found was with roaming profiles. And I can can see why and when it would be a problem. I see a lot of "fearware" that is ready to clean your registry and what not, but I don't think there is very much value in it. Cleaning your temp files once in a while is probably a good thing, but mostly for the disk space.
If you want to store data securely in some place other than your user profile directories, it's just a matter of setting the permissions. Windows permissions are, to my mind, very good. Some believe them a bit overwrought. But in any case they are effective. They will not prevent a user with administrative privileges from gaining access if they want to, but that is by design, and it would not matter if the files and folders were in your user profile or not in that case.
JR
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