A Suggestion... Saving Files

[John]

I have lost a file in my Business Vista hard drive. Oh, it still exists...
somewhere, but I don't know where. It's a very important file, one which I
have encrypted. But yet it's lost.

My suggestion to MS is please stop playing games when we save files. Most
all programs install themselves in the Program Files folder. Let us allow
file saving to that folder for a given program-- ask permission, but then
allow the granting of it!. I can hide an important file there easily but
under the Users proxy folder, who would not look there to pick one's pocket?

This may the the straw that breaks this camel's back. Vista, in its valiant
attempt at security, has become to difficult, and uncertain (where is my
file really located?) to use effectively.

 

[philo]

I have lost a file in my Business Vista hard drive. Oh, it still exists...
somewhere, but I don't know where. It's a very important file, one which I
have encrypted. But yet it's lost.

My suggestion to MS is please stop playing games when we save files. Most
all programs install themselves in the Program Files folder. Let us allow
file saving to that folder for a given program-- ask permission, but then
allow the granting of it!. I can hide an important file there easily but
under the Users proxy folder, who would not look there to pick one's pocket?

This may the the straw that breaks this camel's back. Vista, in its valiant
attempt at security, has become to difficult, and uncertain (where is my
file really located?) to use effectively.

If the file was that important then why don't you even know the name of it?

If you knew the name (or even part of it) you could do a drive search.

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

Exactly, you should at least have it shown in the programs recently opened
list, the recent start menu items or list or be able to search the drive for
it.

 

[alexB]

He or she is histrionic. It is all pretense and bad showmanship.

 

[philo]

He or she is histrionic. It is all pretense and bad showmanship.

<snip>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histrionic_personality_disorder


Wow there alexb that was a pretty good 50cent word there...
ergo: you must be rather vocabulous! <grin>

 

[Dave]

Only program files should be saved in \Program Files. Vista enforces this.
Data files are much easier to backup if you save them in a common location.
I use C:\Data

Your file is probably located in
C:\Users\(youraccount)\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program
Files\whateverprogramyouused

 

[John]

snip...

My good friend, I do know the file name and did find it. However, upon
opening the folder where the file was supposed to exist (via a Vista Search)
low and behold, it wasn't visible? Maybe it's a ghost file... who knows. I
could only open the file via it's application (Excel) using File-Open. All I
know, as a user, is this nonsense is not good for me. You may be an expert
with a programming degree from MIT. I am not. I'm a simple user who is
thwarted from completing my task easily.

 

[John]

Yes, Andre, it showed when I did a File-Open and it was a recently used
file, fortunately. However that file, as shown in the program (Excel), when
I went to that folder via Explorer, did not exist. Curious...

 

[John]

Yes, Dave, we all now know that Vista makes Program Files a horrid place to
install programs. But please tell the people who write the applications we
all use of this fact. Is it too much to ask that we users be given the
opportunity to allow a program to reside within the hallowed walls of
Program files as it once did BV (Before Vista)?.

 

[philo]

snip...

My good friend, I do know the file name and did find it. However, upon
opening the folder where the file was supposed to exist (via a Vista Search)
low and behold, it wasn't visible? Maybe it's a ghost file... who knows. I
could only open the file via it's application (Excel) using File-Open. All I
know, as a user, is this nonsense is not good for me. You may be an expert
with a programming degree from MIT. I am not. I'm a simple user who is
thwarted from completing my task easily.

Then it looks like your point is a good one...
and I apologize if my reply was a bit terse.

Looks like it could be a bug in Vista.

However, before we condemn Vista..
why not give it a chance and investegate further.


It might possibly be a "hidden" file...
and if so...it should not have been of course.

Here is what you can try:

In Windows Explorer...go up to "tools" and in folder options..."view"

allow viewing of hidden files.

then go back to the folder and see if it's there.

(Of course Excel should *not* have saved it as a hidden file...so...


The other thing I was thinking is this:

when you did the drive search and found the file...
did you view the *full* path to the file?
Maybe you needed to expand the pane a bit...Just possibly the folder you
thought it was in had a longer path with an add'l sub-folder that you
missed.

At any rate...it looks like you have "unearthed" an interesting problem at
any rate.

Please have another good look at your search function and post back with the
results

 

[Robyn]

It does, John! Right click on your mouse save as, then click on the area you
want it save in, like browse folders and open that area. Create a new folder
and label it what you what it labled, and save it there! Works for me!!!

 

[John]

Then it looks like your point is a good one...
and I apologize if my reply was a bit terse.

Looks like it could be a bug in Vista.

However, before we condemn Vista..
why not give it a chance and investegate further.


It might possibly be a "hidden" file...
and if so...it should not have been of course.

Here is what you can try:

In Windows Explorer...go up to "tools" and in folder options..."view"

allow viewing of hidden files.

then go back to the folder and see if it's there.

(Of course Excel should *not* have saved it as a hidden file...so...


The other thing I was thinking is this:

when you did the drive search and found the file...
did you view the *full* path to the file?
Maybe you needed to expand the pane a bit...Just possibly the folder you
thought it was in had a longer path with an add'l sub-folder that you
missed.

At any rate...it looks like you have "unearthed" an interesting problem at
any rate.

Please have another good look at your search function and post back with
the
results

Philo,

I respect your sincerity. And for my own curiosity, I will investigate
further... it's my nature. However the real point it the silly behavior of
an OS that's written based on paranoia. Safety is important but give people
the choice as to what safety mechanisms they want to employ. I can turn off
firewall, defender and auto-update. Why not allow me the same privilege with
this silly program files folder nonsense. Life is filled with risks. Safety
measures can often outweigh the risks... it's a personal choice. Let the
user choose. Again, I appreciate your thoughts and interest. My concerns are
more philosophical maybe.

 

[John]

It does, John! Right click on your mouse save as, then click on the area
you
want it save in, like browse folders and open that area. Create a new
folder
and label it what you what it labled, and save it there! Works for me!!!

I'm truly happy it works for you, Robyn. However I have a folder I already
want to use... well-burried for security reasons of my own choosing. I try
and have Excel save to that folder and the data file (.xls) gone to the
Users etc folder. I don't want another folder--too many folders confuse my
simple mind.

I am the consumer. An OS should serve my needs, not the other way around.
Let me choose the folders for my files with all the caveats of risk. Is that
too much to ask?

It's a philosophical issue and I respect your offer of assistance, Robyn.
May you continue to ride happy computing trails.

 

[Dave]

It's fine for installing programs... it's a bad place to try to store data
files.
You may as well store them in C:\Windows \Temp .

 

[Kerry Brown]

I'm truly happy it works for you, Robyn. However I have a folder I already
want to use... well-burried for security reasons of my own choosing. I try
and have Excel save to that folder and the data file (.xls) gone to the
Users etc folder. I don't want another folder--too many folders confuse my
simple mind.

I am the consumer. An OS should serve my needs, not the other way around.
Let me choose the folders for my files with all the caveats of risk. Is
that too much to ask?

It's a philosophical issue and I respect your offer of assistance, Robyn.
May you continue to ride happy computing trails.

Your needs are non-standard so it's a little harder to accomplish them. Make
sure UAC is enabled. Browse to the folder where you want to store the file.
Take ownership of the folder and then set the security permissions as
appropriate. As other have mentioned storing data files in a system area is
not a good idea. Vista makes this hard to do for this reason. It is not
impossible to do. You do have full control in Vista. You just have to learn
a new way to exercise this control.

 

[Opinicus]

Is it too much to ask that we users be given the opportunity to allow a
program to reside within the hallowed walls of Program files as it once
did BV (Before Vista)?.

Saving data files in the Program files folder is asking for trouble. A
system restore could conceivably wipe them out.

 

[Chris Game]

This may the the straw that breaks this camel's back. Vista, in
its valiant attempt at security, has become to difficult, and
uncertain (where is my file really located?) to use effectively.

You can spend too much time fighting Vista - they use virtualisation
to allow users to use a range of pre-Vista programs and by and large
it works well. Stop fighting it and learn to work the Vista way!

 

[philo]

Philo,

I respect your sincerity. And for my own curiosity, I will investigate
further... it's my nature. However the real point it the silly behavior of
an OS that's written based on paranoia. Safety is important but give people
the choice as to what safety mechanisms they want to employ. I can turn off
firewall, defender and auto-update. Why not allow me the same privilege with
this silly program files folder nonsense. Life is filled with risks. Safety
measures can often outweigh the risks... it's a personal choice. Let the
user choose. Again, I appreciate your thoughts and interest. My concerns are
more philosophical maybe.

I am curious as to what has happened.

Of course , though I have Vista on one of my "test and evaluate" machines...
I do not use Vista to do any of my actual work...
Although I mostly use Win2k, Linux and XP...It looks like we are all going
to have to get used to Vista...
It's going to be around for a while...and though it too, will soon enough be
considered obsolete...
many of it's features will be around for years to come.

 

[alexB]

On a very serious note, without a hint of being facetious, could you give me
a list of tasks you do on your Linux partition? I am very snotty about Linux
but I am also curious. I have never heard anything like a hard evidence.

A guy at one forum (MSFN which is by small subscription, almost voluntary)
stated that the had (1) Vista, (2) XP, (3) Win98, (4) I swear something else
I do not remember and (5 or perhaps 6) was Linux. Five OSs on one machine.

I used to think in multiples too until I realized that was a total waste of
time. I still have Win2K + Vista on one machine and I dream about the day
when I will be able to get rid of Win2K. I still have some software on it my
secretary has to use and I do not have time to rework it in C#. It is in
Visual dBase. I have WinServ2003, Vista, half broken XP with no Internet,
another Vista on this machine. I curse the day when I did it. It is useful
to have 2 OS of the same mold on one machine, two Vistas or two XPs you you
like them because at times you have to boot the other one to fix this.

So, please, explain what is all this bragging about Linux. And I do not want
to be offensive. I am just curious.

Thanks.

 

[Alias]

So, please, explain what is all this bragging about Linux. And I do not
want to be offensive. I am just curious.

Thanks.

Check it out yourself at www.ubuntu.com/

Alias