Roaming means ???

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(rant on)

Recently I was in the OpenOffice word processing program and saved a file. It saved to this location automatically:
C:UsersGeneAppDataRoamingOpenOffice.org3usergallery by default.

Later I wanted to find this file and used the search function built into Win7. No problem.

My question is this. Why on earth is a file saved in such an obscure place? Who created the folder called “Roaming”? Not me. What does it mean?

Why does this path start with a Users folder and then find it necessary to have another user folder near the end of the path? Why so many freakin’ users? Can I get rid of some of them?

Why is there a user folder called Public? I deleted it and now some programs are complaining. I don’t want it, don’t need it. can’t (apparently) delete it.

There are NO USERS!!! Just me, dammit. Can’t I simplify this folder structure?

(Rant off)

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In short, no, not really. You know who you are but the computer has to have a lot more structure so it can keep telling itself what it is by that structure

Public takes the place of Shared now and at certain points in the folder stucture, user means something a little different. For instance in your example the first Users is pretty self-explanatory but the second one is at a program level so it is your gallery for that program and not the programs default gallery for that program…complex yes! But, as I said, that’s what a computer needs to do so it doesn’t lose itself or at least can keep track of all its bits and bytes.

So while it seems like a obscure place to automatically save the file to you,,,the program will know exactly where it is and how to access it for its purpose, if any. It probably shoule be a bit better organized but it has inherited the nested folders method for good or ill!

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You may find the attached file of interest, which maps the old Documents and Settings folders onto the new, improved, way of doing things in Windows 7.

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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. . . the new, improved, way of doing things in Windows 7.

Thanks you for the reference you cited; it contributes.

Is there a hint of sarcasm when you say, “the new, improved, way of doing things in Windows 7.”?

However not one comment has told me what roaming means or why it was introduced into the folder hierarchy.

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When you save a file, it’s up to you to point a path where you want it saved. You name a file to what you want and you point it to the path you want. The next time you save a file using the same app it should automatically have the same path to the save location. This is a good thing to get in the habit of doing. Always choose a file save location and a descriptive file name.

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Oh-oh!

I (belatedly) consulted Google and found that “what is roaming” is a valid question, with interesting answers.

Here is one reference:

What is roaming in Win7

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