>>The reason for this is that there's nothing that says that all applications must reside beneath it.
>
>For some reason the person does seem to want the "Program Files" folder...and at least that info can be found in the registry. I suppose that is where Installer programs get the name of the folder to provide a default choice to the user.
>
>>Sorry for the confusion.
>
>No problem :)

While I haven't seen a location other than Program Files off of the root of C:, doesn't mean they don't exist.

The usual course of installation allows the user to select the location. Most folks, including your's truly, go with the default, which is usually in the Program Files folder. However, if I wanted to be absolutely certain of finding the correct location of a program, I'd use the short-cut links in the Start button's Programs menu.