Problem with USERDATA folder

Fly87

Aloha,
Computer info: HP, Vista Home Premium, AMD 9650 Quad-Core, 8GB Ram

My rFactor game installs two USERDATA folders.
C:program Files:rFactor:USERDATA &
C:Users:My Name:Documents:rFactor:USERDATA

Inside both are folders labled "Fly87" (Player Name) and inside these are "Settings" folders. These contain the track folders with saved setups (SVM Files) for each track.

Here is my problem. When I go to the "Garage" and want to load a setup for a particular track, sometimes it doesn't show up. I then exit out of the game and check the track folder in both "Settings" folders, the setup will show in one and not the other. Both "Settings" folders contain the same track folders. Is there a way to only have ONE USERDATA folder. I have deleted both one at a time and each time I start the game it makes a new one.

Mahalo ("Thank You" in Hawaiian) in advance for any assitance!
 
Try to disable Vista's User Account Control under "Control Panel".

1. Click Start and click Control Panel.
2. Click User Accounts and Family Safety.
3. Click User Accounts
4. Click Turn User Account Control on or off.
5. Click the box beside the Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer option to remove the check mark.
6. Click OK.
7. Restart!

After the restart only "C:\Program Files\rFactor\USERDATA" should be used by rFactor.
 
Hello
A quick might be rename on of the profiles.
And when you to game chose your name profile in game and it should be good to go.
Why it is creating two profiles I have no idea never heard that one.

GL
Ruben M.
 
Never install games into program files directory. Chose another partition (not system one).
Since this you will have no problem with access rights.
Also there are another pros like possibility to reinstall a system without loosing rF data like plr settings, setups etc.
 
You can always open the config.ini and change the path to your USERDATA folder to somewhere you do have full access like your documents folder which you will also most likely backup. I personally believe in KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) and leave stuff in their default locations (Program Files). Microsoft laid out best practices for a reason. If only ISI developed rF according to Microsoft's guide lines we wouldn't have to play games to get rFactor to place nice with UAC or non-admin users. Microsoft has been trying to get developers to put user settings in HKCU and files in the user's profile directory since Window 95. They just didn't enforce these guidelines until UAC came along in Vista.
 
Don't believe in MS' best practices in all areas. UAC is designed for multi-user environments where controlling access rights does matter.
For single-user usage it is useless and usually makes problems, especially for unqualified users (this thread is good example).

If you would need to reinstal OS, will you still say that copying personal data from Users/ directory is such comfortable? Don't think so. And please don';t say that I can change Users/ dir location. Ask Fly87 if he did that, or even know how to do that ;)

And what about multiple instances of the same application (so common for rF)?
 
Frank Geyer said:
Try to disable Vista's User Account Control under "Control Panel".

1. Click Start and click Control Panel.
2. Click User Accounts and Family Safety.
3. Click User Accounts
4. Click Turn User Account Control on or off.
5. Click the box beside the Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer option to remove the check mark.
6. Click OK.
7. Restart!

After the restart only "C:\Program Files\rFactor\USERDATA" should be used by rFactor.
Click to expand...

Aloha Frank,
Mahalo for the rapid response. So far, so good. Removed the rFactor folder from "My Documents" and have started game several times. Previously, when I removed the rFactor folder from "My Documents" and started the game it wanted me to create a new "User". Hasn't done that so far. Will post progress report and let you know how it's going.
 
MaXyM said:
Don't believe in MS' best practices in all areas. UAC is designed for multi-user environments where controlling access rights does matter.
For single-user usage it is useless and usually makes problems, especially for unqualified users (this thread is good example).

If you would need to reinstal OS, will you still say that copying personal data from Users/ directory is such comfortable? Don't think so. And please don';t say that I can change Users/ dir location. Ask Fly87 if he did that, or even know how to do that ;)

And what about multiple instances of the same application (so common for rF)?
Click to expand...

Aloha MaXyM
I am the only one that uses this computer. I don't get into the OS files/etc. Wouldn't have the slightest idea how to change a location of anything. I also believe in the "KISS" theory. Thanks for your reply and interest in my problem.
 
First of all, you need to remember that under Vista/Windows 7 you can run applications in two "modes": as User and as Administrator. Running app as an admin, is like running app under Windows XP - the application can do almost everything. In Vista things have been changed (and that's good for typical PC users!). Since then, typical double click on an shortcut is launching the application in User mode - that means, the application is under some restrictions.... in rFactor case, that means, user profile will be in C:\Users\<user_name>\Documents\etc.
When you launch rF as an admin (right click -> Run as Administrator), the application will have all available rights and its profile will be in its directory, like you used to have in XP. You can tick "run as admin" option under exe or shortcut file properties. There is really no need to turn off UAC for that... unless you just want to ;-)
 
It's true what Lesiu said.
But it is mainly important for file structures, which have restriction set. One of such restricted directories (in Vista and W7) are program files and program files (x64).
In some cases (which are out of this topic) applications are not able to write into own install directory if it is placed in program files. In that case they must support using user directory located in Users/ (W7).
If you install on another partition than system one, all directories will be created without special restriction (available for all users of this computer)

Fly, changing location of 'anything' may be difficult in some/most cases due to some registry settings which depends on applications. For 99,99% of apps you may chose destination directory during installation process.
 
"Don't believe in MS' best practices in all areas." Um, why? We can't keep developing like it was 1993. We can't expect people to make changes to their OS (Disable UAC or install outside of Program Files or Run as Admin) to accommodate our apps that don't follow MS's guidelines.
 
Noel Hibbard said:
"Don't believe in MS' best practices in all areas." Um, why?
Click to expand...

Because those practices are developed to reach some goal, which isn't exist in single-user environment. If you don't need to protect your operation system you don't need to use complex solutions. In that case better is to 'use MaXyM's practices' making things just easy.

Once, some one has developed partitions. I believe for some reason. Why do not use it?
(but I know people who buy 500GB HDD and put everything onto single partition. It's quite OK until they want to reinstall OS)
It is better to have programs and data on different partitions than system - at least in case you have to reinstal OS. Avoiding UAC features is significant pro in that case also. Try to count number of the same questions about rf in relation to UAC. Why don't learn people how to make things easier?
 
Last edited:
I understand what you are saying MaXyM. That is one solution to getting old apps/games to work around UAC. But what I am talking about is abiding by MS's best practices as a developer. You re talking about it from a users perspective. I am talking about a developers perspective. I am simply saying that MS's had guidelines in place for developers back when Win95 was released that dictated where data needed to be. If developers listened to these guidelines then we wouldn't have the UAC confusion today. All I am saying is that people will not have to jump through hoops on newer games where developers are finally taking MS's guidelines serious.

ISI should do a quick simple patch to rF Config.exe and rFactor.exe to no longer use config.ini and instead store the config.ini settings in HKCU and then set the paths properly to point to your user profile directory for saved data. It would be easier then answering UAC related questions every day.
 
OK. In this case you are completely right. Software developers should follow MS best practices - it is true.
 
Frank Geyer said:
Try to disable Vista's User Account Control under "Control Panel".

1. Click Start and click Control Panel.
2. Click User Accounts and Family Safety.
3. Click User Accounts
4. Click Turn User Account Control on or off.
5. Click the box beside the Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer option to remove the check mark.
6. Click OK.
7. Restart!

After the restart only "C:\Program Files\rFactor\USERDATA" should be used by rFactor.
Click to expand...


Wow!
A recommend to disable some security features to someone which is obviously not a computer-expert CANNOT be a good solution!

Leave UAC enabled, its a good feature!
simply give your rfactor.exe and your rfactor config.exe Administrator rights by right-clicking them and then check "run as administrator".

"Holy ****... if your handbrake does not work, simply uninstall the brakes to make them work..."

Disabling a firewall isnt a solution too! Better help them configuring the ports / rules.
 
Sorry, but you have no idea of what you re talking about.
Its not just "i know what i may click", it also appears for things which may be started by some evil software or installer.
You never know what happens in the background.

UAC is not deisned to help with random-clicks!
Its a huge step away from that "always beeing" an administrator, and thats a good step!
 
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