Well, there you go, this is a Windows problem as I expected.

In that test application I used two different API calls to try to get Windows to tell me the current path to the Public Documents folder. Both return the same error: -2147024894

-2147024894 means 'The system cannot find the file specified'

So Windows is telling me it does not know where the Public Documents folder went. If Windows doesn't know, who does? lol

hmmmm, well that sucks. So what's to do?
Is there anyway to incorporate a files location setting in the Xtreme preferences, perhaps under General? That way, if the public documents folder has been moved, I can tell Xtreme where it is.

By then it's too late. Xtreme needs to know where the stuff inside Public Documents\Winstep\ is right from the beginning.

Anyway, I'm looking further into this to see if there is some alternative that might work. Either way, those API calls should NOT fail because the user moved the folder to a different place, instead they should return the new location - after all that is the whole point of those APIs (vs. hard-coding paths).

well the way I was envisioning this is that, if the location needs to be changed, go into preferences>general, enter the new location which would be written to the registry at that point, then reboot.

Yes it sucks to have to reboot, but if we weirdos are going to be changing our public documents folders, we should be prepared to sacrifice a reboot

Would that work?

No. You would have problems with the uninstaller then, and doing something like that would probably create more problems than it solves.

Still looking into this.

Thing is, when you re-installed Winstep Xtreme *after* moving Public Documents, the InnoSetup installer placed the data at the proper location (right?) - so there must be *some* API call that actually returns the proper result.

Sorry Jorge, but I never actually did that. The only re-installs I ever did were with the default location engaged. I didn't realize Windows could be screwing this up so it never occurred to me. Yeah yeah I know.

I have a backup of the Themes folder.
Will uninstall using your uninstaller and not screw with CCleaner or Wise Care 365.
I will move the public documents folder to its new location and then install Xtreme. I will let you know what happens.

Wait... what happens if you open a command prompt window and type

Echo %PUBLIC%

?

Also, open the Windows Registry Editor and go to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders

What does it say for 'Common Documents' ?

Just changed the location to D:\public documents and rebooted.



The result is C:\Users\Public
The registry location you requested had D:\public documents

Alright! That means that if the API calls fail (and only then!), I can still try to get the current location from the Windows Registry.

Now, one question does still remains: what happens if you try to install Winstep Xtreme *after* moving the Public Documents folder to the D:\ drive? Will the installer fail?

Well, a fresh install of Winstep recreated the c:\user\public\documents\winstep folder lmao. So that doesn't work. The registry location still shows d:\public documents. Nothing else looks out of place.

Can I change back to the default location or do you want to experiment some more?

Lol. Well, at least now we know that the problem really is Windows.

The Innosetup installer run into the same problem, but solved it by getting the Public folder path (which is still C:\Users\Public\ given that you only moved the Public Documents folder under it) and creating a Documents\Winstep\ folder under it.

That's another way to sort out the mess Windows created by being buggy and refusing to give you the correct path.



Nah, enough for me, thanks! Guess you must have had enough too.

P.S. I think what you originally wanted *might* work, but only if you move the whole of C:\Users\Public\ to D:, not just Public Documents.

I have thought of that as well. I may give that a shot tomorrow. I have made the same request of Stardock (a field to specify the public documents folder.) Their Icon Packager program has one and it works.
I never have enough. If you want my help to deal with all this, I'm in until the end

Thanks! If this happened to you, it might happen to more users as well.

I solved it for next release by looking up the new location of the folder in the Registry. But now I have a problem, because that is NOT how the installer does it (and that is out of my control since I use the excellent InnoSetup installer).

So, the way it is now, if you move the folder AFTER installing Xtreme, the application will work fine. But you will have problems when you try to uninstall it because the Uninstaller won't look in the new folder location, so at the very least it will leave stuff behind.

If, however, you move the folder and THEN install Xtreme, the installer will put everything in the old location but Xtreme will be looking for it in the new location and won't find anything lol.

I can kind of 'work-around' this problem by looking under C:\Users\Public\Documents\Winstep\ if there isn't anything in the new location and using that instead.

Problem is: any Winstep Xtreme updates also updating user data (not just the program files) will put this new user data in the wrong (old) location because that is what the installer does.

And, of course, the uninstaller leaving stuff behind problem will also be present.