Hi Mark.

>Should I just create the app folder (and its subfolders) under \users\public in Vista & Win 7
>and under the root directory for prior Win versions? What are the most intelligent
>choices here?

Don't fight the OS. Put applications in Program Files and don't make that folder writable or you open a security hole on the user's system. Put data somewhere else, such as writable subdirectories of the app folder or other locations I discuss in my article. This mechanism works on all versions of Windows but is more rigorously enforced on Vista and later.

Doug