Discussion Windows 10 getting your saves if game installed in Program Files

[JuarezCause]

A couple days ago I ran into a weird bug and long story short the problem was most likely due to having installed the game into Program Files. The bug had me looking for the save files which should have been placed on the game folder inside the SAVE folder yet I couldn't find them but if I went to the game my saves were there and I could load them and play them.
It dawned on me that the reason the saves weren't where they should be because I wasn't running the game as administrator, if you run as admin the game will be able to write the saves to the SAVE folder inside the game main folder.
Now, I'm not saying that running the game as administrator is the same as installing the game outside the Program Files, you should or even must install the game outside Program Files. In case you, like me, installed the game to Program Files AND you don't run the game as administrator, then you can find your save files here:
"C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\Bethesda Softworks\Pirates of the Caribbean\SAVE"

I'm unsure it it's the same for everyone but should be pretty close, also I don't know if this applies to Win7 or Win8/Win8.1

Hope this can help people with the same problem!!

 

[Pieter Boelen]

You found them after all? Congratulations!

I wonder how that could ever have worked though.
How would the game have any clue to look for them there???

 

[ChezJfrey]

You found them after all? Congratulations!

I wonder how that could ever have worked though.
How would the game have any clue to look for them there???

I'm pretty sure that is an OS feature from about Win 7, onward, where any program that attempts to read/write to it's own dir, the OS redirects to that virtualstore...it's transparent to the app, so it doesn't have to 'look'. I know it works like this for Win 8 for sure, as my kids have that OS.

 

[JuarezCause]

You found them after all? Congratulations!

I wonder how that could ever have worked though.
How would the game have any clue to look for them there???

Yup!! Now I can change my game install location and keep my saves

I'm pretty sure that is an OS feature from about Win 7, onward, where any program that attempts to read/write to it's own dir, the OS redirects to that virtualstore...it's transparent to the app, so it doesn't have to 'look'. I know it works like this for Win 8 for sure, as my kids have that OS.

Hopefully it means that people with thoses OS can get their saves in case they do the same as me!!

 

[SaltySeas7]

OS feature for old games that wrote to its own directory, Program Files is one of those directories that only Admins should be able to write to and that folder is deeply "baked in" to the security of windows, AppLocker among others so it has to stay "writes only for admins". You can burn your fingers if you edit files as an admin, save the file and then later edit files as user and save it, you get two files, when you back them up you have two "nicely cut" editions of your own mod, when you reinstall the OS you're going to be pissed off. I made a huge map for a game once and I forgot to back up the virtualstore\..\maps directory and lost my map because of it.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Indeed we've had problems with getting double files from Program Files before.
Truly a pain to debug, because for all we can see, the code is correct.
But it uses something different anyway.

For modding purposes, Program Files = evil.