Finding the Screenshot folder....
By
electric_emu,
Posted on: 2009-07-24 16:09 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
The default path in Vista 64 is (IIRC) C:\Program Files (x86)\City of Heroes.
I NEVER install to the default folder for games in Vista. I always install to my c:\Games folder or my E:\Games folder, depending on which computer I'm on.
Did you launch the updater to actually install the game, or did you just download the updater from the website?
If you haven't yet launched the updater, the game isn't installed yet. In that case, I'd recommend that when you DO launch the updater, when it asks where to install it do NOT use the default path. Instead create a Games folder on your C: drive or another drive and install it to there.
If the game spit out 20 dollar bills people would complain that they weren't sequentially numbered. If they were sequentially numbered people would complain that they weren't random enough.
Black Pebble is my new hero.
If you installed it to the default location, your Screenshot folder may not be in that folder as it was in XP. Vista may put a placeholder folder there, but the actual path is likely to be C:\Users\yourusernamehere\AppData\Local\VirtualSto re. Since I didn't install to the default folder, I can't check my system to find out for certain what that path is.
EDIT: I got the correct path from Zloth's Missing Files (Vista) post in the ++ Common Solutions & Posting Guidelines ++ thread that is stickied at the top of this forum.
If the game spit out 20 dollar bills people would complain that they weren't sequentially numbered. If they were sequentially numbered people would complain that they weren't random enough.
Black Pebble is my new hero.
Path names!?? This is Vista, we have no need of such old paradigms! 
Go to your Start search and search for screenshot_. Assuming you didn't go and turn off indexing, your shots should pop right up.
Turning off indexing is one of the first things I do on any Wndows OS. It's a resource hog that's constantly running... constantly... it never finishes indexing... it will continue to ping your hard drive... rzzrzr... rzrzrzr.... rzrzzrz... What is doing that?.. <searches running programs...> rzrzr... Nothing is running... rzrzr... MAKE IT STOP!!!!
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Turning off indexing is one of the first things I do on any Wndows OS. It's a resource hog that's constantly running... constantly... it never finishes indexing... it will continue to ping your hard drive... rzzrzr... rzrzrzr.... rzrzzrz... What is doing that?.. <searches running programs...> rzrzr... Nothing is running... rzrzr... MAKE IT STOP!!!!
[/ QUOTE ] I hate indexing and disable it as well. Either way, a search should eventually find the shots without a problem.
And while we are on the subject, I'm kinda curious about something. Why was the screenshot name format changed? It was stealth-changed with i15's release. Either that, or I missed the patch note or a preference that controls this.
Example of old format:
screenshot_2009-06-26-22-05-01.jpg
That picture was taken on 6/26/09 at 10:05pm and 1 second.
Multiple shots within one second were indicated by an additional _1, _2, _3, etc. added to the filename.
Example of new format:
creenshot_090702-00-04-36.jpg
That picture was taken on 7/2/09 at 12:04am and 36 seconds.
Multiple shots within one second are still indicated the same way as before.
Was the old format really that confusing? lol
Indexing on Vista is MIGHTY nice. The filename searches are pretty much instant and text-within-file searches can complete in about a second! Indexing is on a very low priority so it shouldn't bother you while you're trying to do something else. It does cause your hard drive to do things when you don't expect it, but it doesn't take long to get over that. Plus Vista does it for a lot of things, like pre-fetching and background defrag. (Though it would be nice to have a little utility that would tell me just what is running at any particular moment.)
I'm still having a heck of a time teaching myself to use it, though. I spent 10 minutes last night looking for a certain screenshot and never did find it. I just searched for it with the search bar and found it in a second. It's hard to break out of the old habits!
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I NEVER install to the default folder for games in Vista. I always install to my c:\Games folder or my E:\Games folder, depending on which computer I'm on.
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Why'd you install it to a different folder? I understand installing it to a different drive, but I see no possible benefit installing it to somewhere other than Program File (or Program Files (x86)). If it's a permissions thing, you can still simply take ownership of the installation's folder (personally, that's what I do along with Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit setting CoHUpdater.exe to RunAsInvoker instead of the OS trying to auto-UAC elevate it due to thinking it's an installer).
Also, Vista's indexing service isn't really very active once it finishes the initial index on the first run, and even then, it won't negatively impact performance.
And back on topic, the default path on Vista 64 is C:\Program Files (x86)\City of Heroes\screenshots, assuming there is no virtualization involved.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by ShadowNate
;_; ?!?! What the heck is wrong with you, my god, I have never been so confused in my life!
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It's an organizational thing. If you do this, you know where everything is... there's no guarantee that covering your eyes and hitting 'Enter' is going to *always* plunk the program in the C:\Program Files folder. Besides, it's also easier and faster to do this:
Click Start
Click Run
Type C:\Games
Than it is to
Click Start
Click Run
Type C:\Program Files
By a few strokes. 
And that whole permissions thing. Some people (like myself) don't like to be restricted for certain things... Games is one of them, let them be unfettered.
August 31, 2012. A Day that will Live in Infamy. Or Information. Possibly Influence. Well, Inf, anyway. Thank you, Paragon Studios, for what you did, and the enjoyment and camaraderie you brought.
This is houtex, aka Mike, signing off the forums. G'night all. - 10/26/2012
Well... perhaps I was premature about that whole 'signing off' thing... - 11-9-2012
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there's no guarantee that covering your eyes and hitting 'Enter' is going to *always* plunk the program in the C:\Program Files folder.
[/ QUOTE ]And for the few brain-dead installers that still think we're on Windows 95 (Fraps, I'm looking at you! 
), you can manually change it with a couple keystrokes
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Some people (like myself) don't like to be restricted for certain things... Games is one of them, let them be unfettered.
[/ QUOTE ]For games that need to write to the application's installation directory, it's easy to modify the permissions (or just change ownership).
Then again, I like my *nix roots where su/sudo are king, the console didn't suck, and applications are polite and write their data to the user's home directory
Quote:
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Originally Posted by ShadowNate
;_; ?!?! What the heck is wrong with you, my god, I have never been so confused in my life!
|
It's just an organizational thing with me. And a control issue as well to some extent.
There are very few programs that I leave at the default installation path mostly so that I can take some shortcuts with backups, scripts, and a few other things.
This is my first foray into Vista, so I'm still figuring out why the OS is doing some of the things it's doing, and how to work around it the easiest.
I hadn't seen anything on the MACToolkit and RunAsInvoker when I set up CoH on here, but I had seen the recommendation in Zloth's guide to not install to the default folder. Since that fit with my existing habits so well, it was easy to do it that way without having to think too much.
Maybe some day I'll find a method I like better that's easier for me to work with, or makes sense to my way of thinking. Until then, I'll stay with what I'm familiar with.
If the game spit out 20 dollar bills people would complain that they weren't sequentially numbered. If they were sequentially numbered people would complain that they weren't random enough.
Black Pebble is my new hero.
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I hadn't seen anything on the MACToolkit and RunAsInvoker when I set up CoH on here
[/ QUOTE ]I use that method because it allows me to avoid having to run CoH with administrator privs+UAC prompt or having to rename the updater, which creates issues when you update CoX (saw several people complaining when I15 came out due to issues with that).
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but I had seen the recommendation in Zloth's guide to not install to the default folder.
[/ QUOTE ]As far as I can tell, that's only so that the user would have write permission on the folder- it's nothing inherent to %ProgramFiles% (and my method of changing ownership also deals with that).
Personally, I find my method less messy
Quote:
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Originally Posted by ShadowNate
;_; ?!?! What the heck is wrong with you, my god, I have never been so confused in my life!
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Wait, what? Changing ownership of a folder is easy? Since when? What is this about the Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit? I thought that was just for checking compatibility before switching your OS??
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Wait, what? Changing ownership of a folder is easy? Since when?
[/ QUOTE ]RMB on the folder -> Properties -> Security tab -> Advanced -> Owner tab -> Edit (and accept the UAC prompt, putting in password if needed) -> if your username is in the list, click it then click 'OK' OR click 'Other users and groups...', type your username in and click OK on all the dialogs -> Make sure you select the option to apply the changes to subfolders and files.
That's the 'extremely long and overly detailed version' of how to do it, it really only takes a few seconds to do it after you've done it before.
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What is this about the Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit? I thought that was just for checking compatibility before switching your OS??
[/ QUOTE ]It allows you to set various compatibility flags for any executable on your system, the important one for CoX being 'RunAsInvoker' which suppresses UAC's heuristics that think CohUpdater.exe needs to be run as an administrator. There's quite a long list of different flags you can set. It's a bit complicated to figure out how to use it on your own, but there's several guides online about using it for similar things.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by ShadowNate
;_; ?!?! What the heck is wrong with you, my god, I have never been so confused in my life!
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[ QUOTE ]
Wait, what? Changing ownership of a folder is easy? Since when?
[/ QUOTE ]
Yes it's easy, and relatively quick.
Right clicking the item, telling it to take ownership in the ownership tab, and saying ok, and depending on the amount of items underneath the one you're taking ownership.... going to get something to drink and come back. Poof. Done.
Only real issue is if the preceeding folder won't let the ownership change happen. No big, move down one, repeat.
Been that way since 2000 for sure, I'm not *real* sure about NT, but it's probably true there too.
August 31, 2012. A Day that will Live in Infamy. Or Information. Possibly Influence. Well, Inf, anyway. Thank you, Paragon Studios, for what you did, and the enjoyment and camaraderie you brought.
This is houtex, aka Mike, signing off the forums. G'night all. - 10/26/2012
Well... perhaps I was premature about that whole 'signing off' thing... - 11-9-2012
Well well well, I've fiddled with the security before but I never have seen the Ownership tab! Thanks!
Well, ok, it may be labeled 'owner' in the advanced button of the security tab of the properties of the item in question... *gasps for air* but yeah, there it is.
/*pant, pant*
August 31, 2012. A Day that will Live in Infamy. Or Information. Possibly Influence. Well, Inf, anyway. Thank you, Paragon Studios, for what you did, and the enjoyment and camaraderie you brought.
This is houtex, aka Mike, signing off the forums. G'night all. - 10/26/2012
Well... perhaps I was premature about that whole 'signing off' thing... - 11-9-2012
So I downloaded CoH and installed it from there (no discs involved). And when I search City of Heroes on my computer, I only get the updater's shortcut and a link to the main site. And when I look up the CoH folder (via programs), I only get Uninstall, account registration and the two I just mentioned.
So, does anyone have any idea where I could find it? I'm using Vista 64 bit