I am deploying my Java application with Ant. Unfortunately my test deployment on the local machine doesn\'t work because of Vista. The Program Files directionaries are prote
I have very the same security issue with Vista and I resolve it by providing "Full control" access level for "Users" group on "Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat XYZ" folder.
It resolved deployment issues with tomcat for me as well as question on starting tomcat as a service. Of course you can assign permissions more strictly (per deployment user group or per user). IMO it's more quicker way then reconfigure the tomcat.
Regarding your original question how to change path outside of ${catalina.home} under Windows:
It's very the same as you have to accomplish it on *nix:
Did you have ROOT folder in you folder mentioned in appBase? The approach is tested under Tomcat 6.0