What is the importance of the ProgramData
folder in Windows?
I have noticed that many installed programs store files in a subdirectory of the ProgramData
folder. Is there a specific reason for that?
I have to create an installer for my application. Should I store user-level files under ProgramData
or under Users
?
Best Answer
The documentation describes the expected use of this folder like this (emphasis mine):
Note that this documentation refers to the typical path as per older versions of Windows. In modern versions of Windows it is located in
%SystemDrive%\ProgramData
.Rather disappointgly, the above quote is from the now legacy
CSIDL
documentation. But the documentation for the replacementKNOWNFOLDERID
omits the useful descriptions of what you are intended to do with these special folders. So, in order to get to the bottom of questions like this you need to refer to both topics, so far as I can tell.