From: Chris Cannam
On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 9:13 PM, Jeff McClintock<jef(a)synthedit.com>
wrote:
Windows has official rules for this. ?Users are
no longer allowed to
add
random files to an application's directory in
"/Program
Files/Appname".
Oh! This is news to me -- interesting news too, given that I
distribute Windows versions of SV without an installer and just expect
the user to copy it to %ProgramFiles% if they want it to go there, and
that it only looks in immediate subdirectories of %ProgramFiles% for
plugins of any sort.
I don't recall anyone complaining to me that they couldn't install
plugins for it -- maybe this just means nobody is using it?!
On Windows XP, many people run as administrator, so they won't notice
anything. On Vista and Windows 7, they will get a 'UAC' Warning that they
are doing something restricted.
Can you point to any documentation for this? I'd
like to know what
other rules I might be falling afoul of.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms995843.aspx
(most of that is about system dlls and versioning). The relevant part for
plugins is...
" 3.4 Install any non side-by-side shared files to the correct locations
The proper location for shared components depends on whether these
components are shared across companies or by a single company.
Shared components that are private to a single software vendor must be
installed in one of two places. Do not store these files in the system
directory
common files directory\<company name>
%ProgramFiles%\<company name>\Shared Files
The common files directory can be accessed by passing
CSIDL_PROGRAM_FILES_COMMON to the SHGetFolderPath API."
typically
"C:\Program Files\Common Files\LADSPA
Plugins..."
I don't suppose you happen to know whether any Windows-based LADSPA
hosts are actually using this path?
I don't know about LADSPA..but the latest Cubase uses "C:\Program
Files\Common Files\Steinberg\VST2" for 3rd party plugins.
Personally I think the company name could be omitted because many other
individuals and companies need to put plugins in there too.
Jeff M