16- I have a Windows™
10, 8 ,7 or Vista operating system
and my DecoTech saved files have
disappeared.
If you do not need
to recover any of
your missing files,
click here for the instructions.
If you need to recover
your missing files,
click here for the instructions.
(Requires
a good Windows knowledge.)
The complete story
about this trouble
First
know that your saved files are still there, somewhere, in a virtual
folder created by the Microsoft Windows User Account
Control Virtualization Monster! This monster is
the worst ever patch that Microsoft added to its operating system in the
name of security to control applications not initially designed for
their latest Windows 7 and
Vista operating systems. If you
want to know the magnitude of this monster, search the web with the
following keywords : Windows User Account Control UAC Data
Redirection Virtualization
With the UAC enabled, applications are
run under two possible modes : Simple User or Administrator User.
As a simple user, you are no more allowed to save files in the
"C:\Program Files\DecoTech\" folder. While an UAC aware
application will generate an error message when you are trying to do
something that you do not have the privileges to do it, an UAC non-aware
application will trigger the UAC virtualization feature.
The applications of DecoTech version
6.09 (or greater) are UAC aware. The applications of DecoTech
version 6.08 (or lower) are UAC non-aware since they have been built
before Windows Vista. The UAC virtualization is a patch that fools
UAC non-aware applications, by making them to think they are still able
to save a file where they are no more allowed to save it. But in
the reality, the file is saved somewhere else in a virtual folder
located in the current user account profile. By example, a file
instead of being saved in the "C:\Program Files\DecoTech\Images.ct\"
folder, it will be saved in the "C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program
Files\DecoTech\Images.ct\" folder.
DecoTech has been designed to simplify
the user's life by putting all together the DecoTech and user's saved
files into a single folder. By doing this we were avoiding all
possible conflicts with anything else in the system. Also, you
never had to search for a missing saved file in your hard disk and you
were able to easily make a safe backup copy of all your work by simply
coping the DecoTech folder since it was containing everything.
When the UAC virtualization starts to
save your files in a virtual folder but fools you by making them
appearing as if they were in the good folder, the big mess begins.
Since the virtual folder is located in the current user account profile,
that means the saved files will be visible only when you log with this
user account and they will be invisible when you log with another user
account. Now imagine how to make a safe backup copy of all your
saved files without forgetting some of them behind.
Like thousands of other applications created before
Windows Vista,
the DecoTech applications assume that their saved files are located
where they saved them, and to think otherwise is totally illogical and
absurd until some retarded Microsoft engineers created this
virtualization dirty patch. So starting with DecoTech version 6.09, to
avoid all this current mess and also any future mess not yet invented by
the next generation of Microsoft morons engineers, the default DecoTech installation folder
is now "C:\DDS Inc\DecoTech\" instead of the
"C:\Program Files\DecoTech\" folder. The private "DDS Inc" folder
does not exist by default. You need to create it and to create a
folder in the "C:\" root folder you must log with a user account that
has the administrator privileges.
Once the private folder is
created, any file saving in
that folder by an UAC
non-aware application will
no longer trigger the UAC
virtualization feature.
Once again, Microsoft has
demonstrated that each
time it releases a new
version of its Windows
operating system, it cannot
be trusted for software
backward compatibility.
So to avoid all future
collisions with Windows, do
not create your private
folder in a folder created
by Windows. The root
of an hard disk is the
safest location for your
private folder.
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