Rational Application Developer / Websphere polluting home directory - windows-7

When I installed RAD with Websphere 7.0, I got a slew of folders created in my home directory:
%USERPROFILE%\IBM
%USERPROFILE%\Logs
%USERPROFILE%\PMT
%USERPROFILE%\updilogs
%USERPROFILE%\waslogs
%USERPROFILE%\web2feplogs
I am using Windows 7, so I actually use my home directory for various things, and hate that I have all these folders polluting my home directory (more than half of which are sitting empty).
Which of these can I delete? If RAD/Websphere need the directories, is there any way I can configure RAD/Websphere to have them to where they're supposed to be (that is, under %USERPORFILE%\AppData)?
(And I have hidden files/folders showing for work-related reasons, so I can't just hide them)

OK, so:
The %USERPROFILE%\IBM directory is the default directory for RAD to create new workspaces in. I am guessing that this directory was created when you first invoked RAD and it asked you where you would like a workspace created. Check the contents of that directory. If it only contains RAD workspaces, you can delete it (or move the individual workspace directories elsewhere).
I am not aware of a %USERPROFILE%\Logs directory created by wither RAD or WebSphere. Can you list some of the directory's contents?
The %USERPROFILE%\PMT directory wouldn't have been created by WebSphere or RAD. PMT stands for Profile Management Tool - a GUI that WebSphere provides for managing WebSphere profiles. Can you list some of the directory's contents?
%USERPROFILE%\updilogs are logs created by the installer of the WebSphere Update Installer (read that again). You cannot override it. You can delete this directory.
%USERPROFILE%\waslogs are logs created by the installer of WAS itself. You cannot override it. You can delete this directory.
%USERPROFILE%\web2feplogs are logs created by the installer of the WAS Web 2.0 Feature Pack. You cannot override it. You can delete this directory.
EDIT as per comment: The PMT\workspace directory seems to be of the format of an Eclipse workspace. I suspect this one was created when you (or a program that you ran) fired up the Profile Management Tool in GUI mode. As far as I know, this directory can be deleted but it will resurface next time you run PMT in GUI mode.

Related

Cannot rename files from within sandbox

Do Win10 handle file permissions differently than Win7? Even when Properties > Security > Advanced permissions for files/folders seem to be identical?
Problem:
For several years, I've been running my browser within a Sandboxie sandbox. Now I migrated from Win7 to Win10, using the same Sandboxie configuration. But in Win10, the sandboxed applications have troubles in renaming files. Sandboxie does work with Win10, and no one reported the troubles I have.
For example: When I run Notepad in SB, it is unable to rename any files, not even those it just created. When I run Firefox from within SB, it does not remember its configuration from the previous run - that's because it is unable to rename .tmp files with updated configuration (e.g. "extensions.json.tmp" to "extensions.json"). Everything else seems to work fine.
Q: Do I have to set anything differently in Win10 than it was set in Win7?
Details: Without SB everything works correctly, in SB only the file rename seems not to work. The only difference I found is that without SB the apps are executed under my win accout, while in SB they are executed under the "ANONYMOUS LOGON" account. The privileges of both accounts seems to be almost identical (checked using the "Process Explorer" app).
The whole directories and everything within them is owned by me, and SYSTEM, Administrators and OWNER (myself) have full control on all files and folders, recursively.
When I create a folder, and then a file within that folder, I can rename that file even from within the sandbox. But I see no difference in privileges of this new folder/file and other folders/files created earlier (they all are owned by me, and SYSTEM, Administrators and OWNER have full control in all cases).
The same setup works in Win7Pro, but not in Win10Home. What's the problem?
Version: Win10Home x64 v10.0.18362, Sandboxie 5.30
The problem was in Sandboxie 5.30. It has been already fixed in 5.31.2.

Best Practice User Files and Folders in AppData

I’m writing an application that should save user specific data into AppData. This application has an installer. Now I’m not sure, what is the best way to provide the folders in AppData.
Should the installer create (and delete) the folders, or should the application itself create (but probably never delete) the folders.
Also, if multiple user on the same computer use the app, the folders probably doesn’t exist, if another user installed the application.
I didn’t found anything that really explained this to me.
Thanks in advance.
I'll answer for Windows Installer, MSI files, and basically you shouldn't need to worry about it in the installer; just install files to their required locations, and the folder will be created automatically and removed at uninstall if it's empty.
In addition to Phil's correct answer:
If the files from the AppData folders used by your application are created only by the application, at run time, there is no need to configure the installer to create the empty folders. Those folders will be created the moment your app writes down the files.
Also, even if your installer is creating the folder, on uninstall it will not remove if in that folder are files created by the application. Windows Installer keeps track (should do it in a correctly configured package) of every file it installs and only removes the ones it installed (by default, it can be configured to force remove a folder and files which it did not install).
Regarding other users of the app. In this scenario, the simplest method is to use your application for creating the initial default files in the AppData folder, at the first launch of the app for each user.
If you need to install files to AppData from your installer then you could try one of the following approaches. These techniques can be applied with any setup authoring tool that can create MSI packages.

PhpStorm Project Settings per User?

In my company 3 developers use PhpStorm for developing WebApps.
Everyone needs to open (not simultaneously) a project an other user created from time to time.
Let's say user A uses a deployment server named server A and user B uses server b.
User A created the project in the deployment.xml server A is saved.
Now user B needs to open the project and creates server B. Now server B is saved in deployment.xml
If user A want to reopen the project again, he has to set the server back to server A.
Same goes for the workspace.xml.
My question is if it possible to use different project settings for user A and user B?
If it is possible what do I need to change in my settings?
If not how can 3 users work together (no VCS)?
Thanks in advance
In the case where no settings are to be shared between developers, only the project files, PhpStorm accepts reading project files from a directory outside of the classical 'project directory'. Here is one approach to that; each developer is to:
Create and open a new empty project from PhpStorm, in a folder on the local hard drive. Only project settings will be stored here.
Open the Settings dialog, choose 'Directories' from the left pane, then click 'Add Content Root' (at the top of the rightmost pane).
Choose the folder on the network share that contains the project files.
Remove the original 'content root' corresponding to the project settings folder on the local hard drive.
Each developer can now open their locally created directory in PhpStorm, and any files opened/created will exist on the shared folder.
A related question: PhpStorm - How can I avoid creating the .idea folder?
Please note that working with files that are not on a local filesystem, especially when they are editable by multiple developers, is not recommended. Even for small projects, storing a Git repository on the network share, with each developer git pulling when beginning work and git pushing when done, is a small investment that will pay large dividends. Here is a good introduction: http://www.gitguys.com/topics/creating-a-shared-repository-users-sharing-the-repository/, but the key command is git init --bare reponame in the setup phase.

How do I Include a file in a release package that is not part of the project

I need to create a release / install package. There is a drop down box in VS that lets me create a release version for the project. So I hit the publish button and choose the CD option. Sure enough it publishes the a setup I need. I installed the application everything goes fine though I have no idea where on the target machine where the application ended up??? Trouble is my application has signed XML file that stores the public keys my application uses to enable features depending on what a customer is licensed to do. I would like the key file to be part of the package that is installed so I don't have to send it seperately. I have to send the license file but I was hoping to avoid confusion by only requiring the user to only have copy the license file to the local directory. Which brings up another question were is application installed I did a search and found nothing with my application name???? But thereis an icon onthe star menu and the applicaton seems to run just file
You probably deployed your application as a "ClickOnce" Application. It installs the program to an obfuscated folder in your users folder. On Windows 7 it winds up in something like "c:\users\username\AppData\Local\Apps\2.0\somefoldername\somefoldername". If you need more control of the installation, the free InstallSheild LE that comes free with VS2010 is not a bad choice. It will let you add additional files as well.

How to delete application file from AppData\Roaming folder

I am using windows installer to create setup project.
How I can remove/delete application files from AppData\Roaming folder when application uninstalled.
I tried added a special folder and set DefaultLocaltion to [AppDataFolder] but it didn't working.
Do I need to do anything else?
I'd need to understand what you are trying to do to give you specific advice. In general what you are trying to do would be OK removing files from CommonAppDataFolder but not AppDataFolder as trying to clanup user data from multiple user profiles is not a best practice. Additionally trying to cleanup Roaming Profile User data is outright impossible because the other users aren't logged on.
You'll want to read:
Managing Roaming User Data Deployment Guide
Assuming you are trying to do what I think you are, you'll need a cleanup script / exe that you leave behind on uninstall and a custom action to write to the registry during uninstall ( MSI can't do this natively ) to call that script/EXE. You'll want to leverage the Active Setup trick as described here:
Using Active Setup to Repair User Settings
The way it'll work is your uninstall leaves the EXE and registry entry behind so that when a user logs on it's roaming data gets pulled down from the server to local and Active Setup realizes it hasn't run the script yet. The script runs (once) and the data is deleted. When the user logs off the data is replicated / deleted on the server. Then they log on again it doesn't run again.
By default Windows Installer does not remove the files created by your application, after the installation. To do that you need to either write your own custom action, that will run upon uninstall, or depending on the tool used for authoring the MSI, you can use built-in options for cleaning the application locations, as some tools have this support.

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