Forum: Author Hangout

PC Question

Switch Blayde 🚫
Updated:

This has nothing to do with SOL or writing. But since there are so many IT folks here, I thought it would be a good place to ask.

I'm trying to find where Kindle PC (the Kindle reader installed on my PC) keeps it's ebooks. I did a find on "Kindle" and it found it. I looked at the properties for kindle.exe and the target is:

C: Users Elliot AppData Local Amazon kindle.exe

The problem is, I get as far as "C: Users Elliot " but there's no "AppData" in that directory. How can that be?

Also, if I do a find on "kindle.exe" instead of "kindle", I get not found.

I'm stumped.

ETA: the forum software doesn't show the back slashes \

Replies: Dominions Son Capt. Zapp Ernest Bywater

Dominions Son 🚫
Updated:

@Switch Blayde

ught it would be a good place to ask.

I'm trying to find where Kindle P

Try My Documents/My Kindle Content

Interesting, It won't show a backslash.

Replies: Switch Blayde Switch Blayde

Switch Blayde 🚫

@Dominions Son

Try My Documents/My Kindle Content

That's it. How'd you find it? And why is the target wrong when I clicked on properties?

Replies: Dominions Son

Dominions Son 🚫

@Switch Blayde

I have the Kindle PC app myself. The target for a short cut is the application executable, not the location where the data is stored.

Switch Blayde 🚫

@Dominions Son

Interesting, It won't show a backslash.

You have to type &#92 ;

Replies: Dominions Son

Dominions Son 🚫

@Switch Blayde

You have to type ;

Why?

Replies: Switch Blayde

Switch Blayde 🚫

@Dominions Son

You have to type ;

Why?

I have no idea. It's a question for Lazeez.

But if you type &#92 ; (without the space) you get \

Replies: Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Switch Blayde

I have no idea. It's a question for Lazeez.

a backslash is the escape character and can be used to insert malicious code into the post. It's stripped for that reason.

Replies: Vincent Berg

Vincent Berg 🚫

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

a backslash is the escape character and can be used to insert malicious code into the post. It's stripped for that reason.

Could we post a list of various codes used for characters in the forum, from backslashes to em-dashes and ellipses, and possibly pin it somewhere so it won't get lost after the first week? While not everyone uses these codes, those of us who do use them frequently, but not often enough to have the ID for each memorized. :(

Capt. Zapp 🚫

@Switch Blayde

The problem is, I get as far as "C: Users Elliot " but there's no "AppData" in that directory. How can that be?

You may have to set the folder properties to show hidden files.

Replies: Switch Blayde

Switch Blayde 🚫
Updated:

@Capt. Zapp

You may have to set the folder properties to show hidden files.

That was it. Thanks.

Ernest Bywater 🚫
Updated:

@Switch Blayde

The problem is, I get as far as "C: Users Elliot " but there's no "AppData" in that directory. How can that be?

Due to this I'm assuming you're using MS Windows. The default setting for Windows is to have System Files set to be hidden, and the AppData directory is classed as a system file. You need to change your directory settings to Show Hidden Files and to Show File Extensions (sometimes says Show File Types).

In MS Windows 7, and many other variants, the directory tree line to find the AppsData is

Root Directory - Users - User Name - AppData -

In the App Data directory you have three options: Local - LocalLow - Roaming - - not sure what criteria they use to put what where, but most data is in Local

typo edit

Replies: Dominions Son Switch Blayde

Dominions Son 🚫
Updated:

@Ernest Bywater

In the App Data directory you have three options: Local - LocalLow - Roaming - - not sure what criteria they use to put what where, but most data is in Local

That is for static or configuration(option state) data for the application itself.

In any Win XP or higher, user data (like e-books) should be under c:/users/username/My Documents

Replies: Ernest Bywater

Ernest Bywater 🚫

@Dominions Son

In any Win XP or higher, user data (like e-books) should be under c:/users/username/My Documents

One thing I've learned about MS Windows over the years is: What should be and MS do are rarely ever the same. This is due to their underlying approach to have control over everything at the expense of the user.

NB: I constantly used MS Software from DOS2 up to Win 7, except Vista - including various versions of NT, thus I'm fairly experienced with MS as a tech, but have tried to steer well clear of them for the last decade.

Replies: Dominions Son Not_a_ID

Dominions Son 🚫

@Ernest Bywater

One thing I've learned about MS Windows over the years is: What should be and MS do are rarely ever the same.

I've not run into an any application on either XP or Win 7 that does not use My Documents by default for user data.

Replies: Ernest Bywater Vincent Berg

Ernest Bywater 🚫

@Dominions Son

I've not run into an any application on either XP or Win 7 that does not use My Documents by default for user data.

The few I can name from experience are: Firefox, Waterfox, Thunderbird, Chrome, GIMP, and probably others that don't pay the full MS dangeld, but I don't use that many programs now. That's almost the full list of software I use, can't remember if Calibre and Libre Office do or don't store any data in My Documents by default because I pointed them at special directories of my own, but they also had directories in AppData.

Replies: Vincent Berg

Vincent Berg 🚫

@Ernest Bywater

That's almost the full list of software I use, can't remember if Calibre and Libre Office do or don't store any data in My Documents by default because I pointed them at special directories of my own, but they also had directories in AppData.

I've also long given up on MS storing all my user data on the system drive, so that if the system crashes, or gets corrupted, which is a fairly frequent occurrence, you stand to lose all your data. Thus I redirect MY Documents to a separate data partition so it'll be preserved if I do a system restore.

Vincent Berg 🚫

@Dominions Son

I've not run into an any application on either XP or Win 7 that does not use My Documents by default for user data.

User DATA in generally stories in My Documents, but anything MS considers 'system data' concerning the user is stored under App Data. :(

Not_a_ID 🚫

@Ernest Bywater

One thing I've learned about MS Windows over the years is: What should be and MS do are rarely ever the same. This is due to their underlying approach to have control over everything at the expense of the user.

In this case, it's more about what MS says developers should do, and the developers actually do. MS has little control over where applications written by Amazon decide to put things.

Replies: Ernest Bywater

Ernest Bywater 🚫

@Not_a_ID

it's more about what MS says developers

A large part of that is the code they provide to the developers to have things automatically set up, and the instructions they give developers on where to store things. The code and instructions you get from MS varies with the amount of danegeld you pay them.

Switch Blayde 🚫

@Ernest Bywater

The default setting for Windows is to have System Files set to be hidden

Yes, that was it. I un-hid them and I found the directory.

Perv Otaku 🚫

The AppData stuff has been in different places under different names over the various versions of windows, but it was always been very important to know where to get it when you migrate to a new computer, so you can copy it over.

These days even if you have "hide system files & folders" to the default "on" you can still get to the appdata folder if you type it in manually.

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PC Question

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