Wrong install location

mniesen — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 16:52:51 GMT

Device

A regular Windows 10 computer.

Operating System

Windows, the version doesn't matter because folder redirection exists for ages.

My Question or Issue

The spotify desktop app doesn't install properly. This is because the install path is wrong. Your installing spotify under roaming appdata, this is absolutely wrong. A program should be installed under program files or program files (x86).

The local appdata folder is for application data that should stay on the computer. Many other programs are installed here, which is also wrong.

The roaming appdata folder is for application data that should be able to move between devices. Roaming appdata is used so that in for example a hospital you can login to any station and that your chrome settings, etc. are the same as when you logged out on the previous device. In some cases it is smarter to use a feature from Microsoft called folder redirection, this allows the sysadmin to set the appdata location on a centralized location instead of copying the roaming appdata folder every time when a user logs in.

The downside of this is that the roaming appdata location is not anymore C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming but instead (e.g.) \\server\sharename\username\AppData\Roaming the later is a so called UNC path. This shouldn't be a problem if developers knew this, however because the install location of Spotify is in my case a UNC path, Spotify doesn't open.

I am very sad that a standard Windows feature is not supported by a company the size of Spotify.

A detailed explanation of folder redirection and a use case: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folder_redirection

topic Wrong install location in Desktop (Windows)

Wrong install location