What Are the Different Windows 'AppData' Folders for, Anyway?

Now you'll finally know what the heck Roaming and Local means!

Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro
0:43 - What is AppData?
3:37 - Roaming & Local Folders
7:31 - LocalLow Folder
8:50 - ProgramData Folder
10:17 - Why is Roaming the Default?

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#Windows #Computers #Tech #ThioJoe

[uniktbrukernavn]

I love browsing these folders and discover software that I uninstalled years ago. It's like a historical record of my computer life. Filling up my drive with millions of files.

[Lofote]

%APPDATA% is roaming, because it was so in Windows NT 4/2000 times, and the Local came later inside that folder as "application data\local" with the rule to not sync. At first NT4 synced everything even the users temp folder, and then they realized it was a bad idea, so local and some domain settings were added to exclude the Local folder. The really clear seperation with Roaming and Local then came with the so-called "User Profiles V2", which came with Vista and Windows Server 2008.

[stevenlace]

I was a developer for a drawing app and I chose to use the roaming folder to store the user's app settings. If the user uses a Microsoft account for logging into the computer, their settings get synched across all computers that they use with the same login credentials. So if they defined a custom color on one machine it would be available on all the other machines they login to.

[shaunbowen]

Most apps: install settings to one of these folders.
Adobe: "We've got files in every directory and folder from here to the Sudan. We install a dozen languages and know every local custom. We'll blend in, disappear and you'll never see us again. With any luck we've got the grail already"

[DarmaS]

AppData folder: **exist**
Games: I'll use Document folder instead

[CaseAgainstFaith]

I’m a reasonably proficient technical computer user. But, never had a clue about those local/locallow/roaming folders. Or why there was ProgramData in addition to AppData. So, I learned a lot here. Thanks.

[amallkrishna]

This is a video I never knew I needed.

[BlockBlazer]

The point of the Roaming folder is to store your Minecraft saves.

[supra]

The %APPDATA% variable used to point to just the AppData folder back in XP days, when there was only one AppData folder for everything. So in a way Roaming is also treated as a backwards compatibility folder.

[andrewcox]

I wouldn't be shocked if 99% of people who have ever accessed the AppData folder did so for Minecraft.

Within a Windows domain network, you can have two types of users - standard user and roaming user.
The idea is that you are either someone working from within your machine that is specifically assigned to you or you are someone who frequently has to login on a bunch of different machines.
For that, you have the Local and Roaming folders - the Roaming folder gets synced across the domain to every computer you log in, if you are a roaming user.
This is a practice many businesses have, even though it is deprecated.
A great example of a roaming user could be that you are logging into your university's or work's Remote Desktop Services machines, where there are multiple identical servers and you get assigned one randomly to log in to. You would prefer your programs to behave in the same manner all the time, wouldn't you?
But I stress this again - roaming users are a deprecated feature, and as for Remote Desktop Services, there is software solution called FSLogix that makes sure that your user profile behaves nicely with all the RD servers.

[nickjulyA]

There's also a folder in the Local folder of AppData called VirtualStore that's used for legacy programs that try to save their configuration/preference files to Program Files (or any other non user directory) when the program doesn't have administrator privileges.

[seto]

"And installer, which is beyond the scope of this video"

... I am intrigued.

[siberx]

For applications that elect to use both Local and Roaming, the typical layout is to put disposable "cache" type data in Local, and to use Roaming for actual explicit program settings/information that the user themselves might care about. This has the added benefit of not bloating out Roaming with data that can be safely discarded when synchronizing between machines.

[rappscallion]

I worked for an international company with 65k users and they used roaming profiles. This was back in early when Windows 2000 was new. While convenient when it works it also caused lots of issues. Sometimes the profile would become corrupt and had to be reset. But the biggest issue was that it could increase logon times significantly. Basically the roaming profile is stored on a network share and then pulled down to the client they are login on to. Some times users profiles were HUGE and it could literally take two hours before they were logged on, especially on remote offices with slow WAN-links. Fun times.

[Shiny_Hunter_Rob]

Oh, crap, Joe, I'm so sorry! I accidentally smashed the Like button...

[kavyaagrawal]

Program files: Store files' programs
App data: store file apps
Local: local data
Roaming: minecraft data i mean unlocal data
Locallow: *_welcome to downtown coolsville_*

[daniellado]

The Appdata folder is where many of my gaves save data is, because for some reason it can't be in documents or in "my games" folder.

[eno]

It still feels weird that nowadays I come to your channel for accurate information.

[BakaDani]

Minecraft modding is how I learned about the appdata folders. Then I modded other games and beta test others and now that folder is used almost every day for me.