Comment by Dylan16807
5 days ago
They loosen the permissions on the steam folder on windows. I would have expected just the library folder but apparently it's the whole thing.
5 days ago
They loosen the permissions on the steam folder on windows. I would have expected just the library folder but apparently it's the whole thing.
Oof. The correct location for this is C:\ProgramData
Developers who knowingly reduce or disable default Windows security settings should be censured. Because in 99% of cases it is due to ignorance or plain laziness.
Well ProgramData didn't exist when they designed it, and the crime of putting their folder in the wrong place is a pretty minor one. They don't change the permissions of anything outside Steam.
It doesn't "reduce or disable default Windows security settings" in a meaningful way if you say to yourself "that folder effectively is in ProgramData, but spelled wrong".
CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA is the API call to get this special folder which has been around since <checks notes> Windows 2000, 26 years ago.
You should never hardcode the path since it can and has moved around, though MS has implemented hard links to legacy paths because most developers are stupid and against persistent better advice do it anyway. I've seen multi-million dollar software packages whose vendor requires it to be writable by "Everyone".
Steam was first released in 2003, three years later.
For 80% of grievances about Windows, there is likely a solution in place that no one knows about because they didn't read the documentation.
10 replies →
Really? Programs installed by non-administrators should go in ProgramData?
The actual solution, which remains both compatible and consistent with the security model, is that you should have to be administrator and pass UAC to install a game, just like you do to install anything else.