Strange File Saving Behavior in Windows Vista

Factual Questions
1

This probably happens with other programs, but in case it matters, I’ve only just now noticed this problem using Noteworthy Composer in Windows Vista.

Here’s the problem. Say I sign into one person’s account in Vista, and save a file in Noteworthy Composer, saving it to the Noteworthy Composer folder, found in Program Files on the C drive. Say I later sign into a different person’s account in Vista, and try to load that file in Noteworthy. I look in the Noteworthy Composer folder, found in Program Files on the C drive and–the file is not there. But say I go back to the original account and try to load the file. I look in the Noteworthy Composer folder, found in Program Files on the C drive and–there’s the file. I can only see it, (or it is only there,) if I am signed into that person’s account. The file can not be found under anyone else’s account–not even by using the Vista’s “search” function.

I am used to this kind of thing when programs make use of special user-account-specific folders for saving data. But this program does not seem to be trying to anything like that. It just saves the data to a folder I can get to through Program Files on the C drive. I don’t have to go into any special folder assigned to the user of the account I’m on at the time in order to find the file. Anyway, Noteworthy is a pretty old program and I’m very suprised if its designed to take advantage of any special features Windows may have regarding different user accounts.

My question is, does anyone know of a way to avoid this strange behavior? I doubt you need to know anything special about Noteworthy Composer in order to know something about how to deal with this problem. (That’s why I’m writing here and not to Noteworthy’s tech support.) This strikes me as strange Vista behavior rather than strange Noteworthy behavior, since the problem has to do with what Vista is telling me I can and can’t access from whose accounts.

-FrL-

2

It is probably going to the user’s virtual store. See here for details (particularly the heading: Virtualization Improves Compatibility), or google Vista VirtualStore.

3

That sure sounds like it!

But I just checked, and no, it’s not in that user’s virtual store. :frowning:

-FrL-

4

In that case, have you checked the security on the folder that the user is saving the file in?
ETA: To help make certain it isn’t a Virtual Store issue, log on as the user that can see the file(s). Then, using explorer, browse to the folder with the file(s). On the menu bar, next to Organize and Views, does a Compatibility Files button appear? If so, click on it, and it will take you to the appropriate VirtualStore directory.

5

Are you checking as an administrator account? I don’t think you can normally see files in other users’s virtual stores, although an administrator should be able to.

The real solution, by the way, is to make an “All Users Documents” folder somewhere, and save to it instead. Programs other than installers aren’t supposed to be writing to the application directories, and this is just Vista trying to enforce that.