How to locate shaddow directories?

[mmo]

Could some kind soul please shed some light on Win7's "shaddow directories" feature? What I mean by that is: where are files ending up, that (old-fashioned, badly behaved) applications are trying to write into their installation directory (i.e. under C:\Program Files\StupidAppInstallLocation)?

I have installed such a program which by default saves the user's data into a subfolder, say "MyFiles" of its C:\Program Files\StupidAppInstallLocation directory (i.e. my data files appear to be in C:\Program Files\StupidAppInstallLocation\MyFiles\).

But while I can load previously edited files from that path into said application, if I navigate Explorer to the very same path, I don't see that MyFiles directory!

My suspicion is, that Windows 7 has silently redirected the creation of that directory to somewhere else and now just mirrors it into that place, so that the application "sees" the directory where it expects it to be.

The problem is that I need to access those files not only through said application, but I also with other tools. But where are those files actually residing??? How can I find out?

Michael

 

[mitchell65]

As you know the name of at least one of the files you are looking for just click Start and type the file name in the Search Box. This will list your file. Right click on it choose Properties and General Tab and look at "Location" This will show the path to your file. Remember if you have Win 7 64 bit you have two Program Files directories. Also the working folder for your program will likely be in the C:/users?!!!! directory.

 

[mmo]

Thanks - that got me going. The short and direct answer though would have been:

C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\StupidAppInstallLocation

i.e. files and directories that a program creates in "illegal" locations are redirected to:
C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\

Cheers,
Michael

 

[mitchell65]

Sorry if I was "Teaching my grannie to suck eggs" but it is always a bit difficult with just one contact to work out how computer savvy someone is. I run a small online Computer Club and am used to helping absolute beginners with questions like "My computer doesn't work, Help!" My first question back is , Have you switched it on at the wall socket? That usually solves the issue! But we all started by knowing nothing!
I guess your problem is now resolved?

 

[mmo]

Yes - solved - and sorry for sounding a bit terse and/or impatient. Maybe it was just because I had felt a bit annoyed that I hadn't come up with that idea myself?

I appreciate your help!

M.