Why is the winboard.ini file in %programfiles%\winboard*\win

[Santa]

I am using Windows XP Professional, Windows 7 Starter and Windows 7 Professional 64-bit.

A directory under $programfiles^is the standard place to install shared application programs. It, and all files and directories under it are owned by Administrators and ordinary users may not change them.

Here is the position on Windows XP Professional:

Code: Select all

C:\Program Files\WinBoard-4.4.2\WinBoard>cacls winboard.ini
C:\Program Files\WinBoard-4.4.2\WinBoard\winboard.ini BUILTIN\Users:R
                                                      BUILTIN\Power Users:C
                                                      BUILTIN\Administrators:F
                                                      NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:F
                                                      PYTHON\Administrator:F

The final letter, after the colon, describes the permissions allowed.
R is read, F is full control and is generally awarded to the owner.

I don't yet have winboard installed on Windows 7, but the picture there will be pretty similar.

This gives rise to some difficulties:
"limited users"' (the kind recommended for daily computing) can't change the file unless an administrator takes post-installation action so they can.

In the case where there are several users of a computer, they should have separate accounts where they can keep their private information confidential.

Where roaming profiles are used (usual, I'd think, in schools), users' data is stored on a server where it can be managed centrally, and from where it can be copied to the next computer the user logs onto.

Is there a good reason for having winboard.ini where it is, and not in (say) %appdata%

[H.G.Muller]

The reason is historic; WinBoard was developed in the time when Windows ws still a single-user OS.

The installer allows you to install anywhere you like. The latest installer proposes C:\WinBoard-4.4.2\WinBoard as folder for the exe and ini files.

The deveopment version of WinBoard allows re-direction of the ini file from within another ini file. In xboar this is used to have a master settings file in /etc/xboard/xboard.conf, (where ordinary users do not have write permission), and let it redirect the readng and saving of settings to ~/.xboardrc , in the users own home directory. Perhaps this would already work for windows too? i don't know XP-professional well enough to know if there is something similar to the linux ~ to describe a user-dependent place in the file system.