I saved a file on C:\ and it put it where ? ! virtual store ?

DonM123 · 08 Dec 2016

What is a VIRTUAL STORE why did windows place my file somewhere other than where I placed it. ?

Why did it put a lock on my file when I cut it and pasted it ? Why does photoshop save it in C:\ and see it their and thinks it there but in reality windows did not put it there.
All these profiles and users and such took the DOS user and scrambled his brain up a bit. ME my brain. Its like someone took all my crayolas away and put sticks of chalk there when I was not looking.

I am 50 and I have been playing with these computers sence I was 25. You would think I would know all about this VIRTUAL store and these LOCKS by now.

in the picture
"A" shows where the file went when I saved it on C :\
B proves that Photoshop THINKS its on C:\
C shows that I cut test.psd from c:\ while in photoshop and pasted it into the tmp folder but it has LOCK on the file. WHAT ??
Maybe I could tell windows that I dont want it HELPING ME OUT at all. NO virtual anything.
I want everything and everone to know where everything is so everone knows.
that way when I GO TO BACKUP MY FILES they are where I think they are
Its crazy THe desktop used to be c:\windows\desktop but now its someplace under the users or maybe its someplace else sometimes. See my problem is I dont know what to beleive because I am told one think by photoshop and another thing by windows explorer.
So who is the one who gives me permission and who am I ?

Mark9870 · 09 Dec 2016

Items are saved in the virtual store when you don't have permissions to save to the folder where you're saving.
More about that here, here and here

Pyprohly · 09 Dec 2016

Hi,

Good in-a-nutshell response, Mark9870. I think that first link justifies the need for virtualisation really well.

Here are some useful pointers and facts I’ve collected regarding virtualisation.

Virtualisation was introduced with Windows Vista. See that PCMag article for why.
The virtual store for file system objects is located at C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\VirtualStore (or shorter, %localappdata%\VirtualStore)
Files are redirected to the virtual store on a per-user basis. This means that if a file undergoes virtualisation on one user account, another user will not be able to access that file.
Virtualisation occurs with registry items (both keys and values) as well, and their virtual store is located at HKCU\Software\Classes\VirtualStore
UAC must be enabled for applications to experience virtualisation
Virtualisation will only take place if the requested location to write to can be written to by an administrative user
A virtualised item is visible to all applications with virtualisation active
Any non-elevated application is eligible virtualisation
Applications running as administrator cannot be virtualised and must directly query the VirtualStore in order to see virtualised items
Windows automatically switches virtualisation on for legacy applications. A legacy application is defined as a 32-bit application that doesn’t include a manifest indicating the application was written for Windows Vista or later
Virtual stores do not get cleaned
Task Manager can be used to view which applications are currently being virtualised. See tutorial, Process - See if running as administrator
Virtualisation is considered a compatibility technology and Microsoft’s documentation warns that the feature may be subject to removal in future

References:
Tales of Application Compatibility Weirdness – Demystifying UAC Virtualization – Pat's Windows Development Blog
Security: Inside Windows Vista User Account Control
Registry Virtualization (Windows)

Hopefully this answers some of your questions, DonMurray, otherwise keep asking questions and we’ll do our best to answer them.

Edit:
Concerning the golden locks, they’re a separate concept and relate to file permissions.

An item with a golden lock indicates that only one user has any sort of access rights to that file, exception the builtin Administrator account and the SYSTEM trustee.

It’s not very useful. The icon’s only caused more confusion than convenience for users and has been absent from Windows Explorer since Windows 8.