Is AppData now the 'correct' place to install user-specific apps (which modify their own data)?

Question

I\'m probably just being very thick here, but it\'s not clear to me where I\'m supposed to install \'new\' user-specific programs on Windows 7 (and presumably Vista too,

Answer 1

Windows 7 folder structure is deeply inspired on Unix structure:

/usr/ -> C:\Program Files\ -> binaries: executables and dynamically linked
/etc/ -> C:\ProgramData\ -> global settings
/home/ -> C:\Users\ -> a folder for each user
~/.* -> C:\Users\Hikari\AppData\Roaming\ -> settings for each user

Windows has more folder, like My Documents for files with content produced by user, AppData Local and Roaming (which Unix usually handles with NFS).

It's about time for us developers to start using these structures. We must separate at least binary files that don't need to be replicated, global and user settings.

When a setup is installing an app, this setup should expect to have permission to write on Program Files. Once the setup is finished, Program Files should be writable only for other setups aiming to update binaries to other versions.