>Rick, by "install directory," do you also mean that sub-folders thereof should be avoided for writable data?

Yes. If UAC is on those folders are not write enabled and Windows will re-direct data written there via shadow copying. This works for simple files, but it is terrible for anything that needs to get updated frequently. In general all modifiable data is not supposed to be in the program files folder structure. You can work around that by setting permissions explicitly, of course, or as part of an installation routine but that's a bad idea in general.

+++ Rick ---