Windows Vista and Windows 7 Issues
This Technical Support Bulletin applies to Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 2008 Server operating systems.
User Access Control (UAC)
When this feature is turned on (the default) Windows provides extra levels of protection and security. Some of these features are obvious to the user and others are somewhat hidden.
Windows Program Files folder
The Windows "Program Files" folder (normally "C:\Program Files" or "C:\Program Files (x86)" for 64-bit versions) is treated as a "Protected System Location" when UAC is turned on. Normal programs are not allowed to write to the Program Files folder or any sub-folder.
Instead, either a permission denied error will occur or Windows will save it to an alternate location called the "VirtualStore". This is done automatically, and without the knowledge of the user. The VirtualStore location for the Program Files path is "C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files".
This means, if you open an Access database file located in your Program Files folder, when changes to the database occur Windows will, behind the scenes, create a new database file in the VirtualStore location and write to this new database file. The original database file stored in 'Program Files' is NOT updated.
This "redirection" can cause problems when backing up files, or transferring files to a new computer or location as the files are not stored where you think, ie they will be in the VirtualStore folder rather than your in Program Files folder.
Therefore, you should NOT use database files located in your Program Files folder.
In addition files created from within finPOWER, emPOWER and fdPOWER should not be saved into a folder under Program Files, as these too will be redirected to the VirtualStore folder. For example, attempting to save a Direct Credit or Direct Debit file under the Program Files folder may cause confusion and lead to the incorrect file being sent to your Bank.
Note, if you turn off UAC you can write into the Program Files folder without being redirected to VirtualStore. However, we strongly recommend you still not save files into the Program Files folder.