[Topgun]

Where can I find the pilot files for regular users in vista/7?

[chief1983]

Same place as on any Windows?  Hasn't changed yet.

[Topgun]

not in data/players
regular users don't have write access to that folder.

Windows Vista has introduced limited Registry virtualization, whereby poorly written applications that do not respect the principle of least privilege and instead try to write user data to a read-only system location (such as the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive), can be redirected to a more appropriate location, without changing the application itself. The operation is transparent to the application, as it does not know that its Registry operations have been directed elsewhere.

Similarly, application virtualization redirects all of an application's Registry operations to a non-Registry backed location, such as a file. Used together with file virtualization, this approach allows applications to run without being installed on the location machine.

Low integrity processes may also leverage registry virtualization. For example as Internet Explorer 7 or 8 running in "Protected Mode" on Windows Vista or Windows 7 will automatically redirect registry writes by ActiveX controls to a sandboxed location in order to frustrate some classes of security exploits.

Lastly, the Application Compatibility Toolkit[23] provides shims that can transparently redirect HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE or HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT Registry operations to HKEY_CURRENT_USER to address "LUA" bugs that cause applications not to work for limited users.

found it. its in C:\Users\USER\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\

[Zacam]

Another reason why Installing Freespace 2 (And thusly, FSO) to C:\Games\Freespace 2 vs C:\Program Files (Or C:\Program Files(x86)) is a good idea.

[chief1983]

You're not supposed to install Freespace to your Program Files folder

Put it in C:\Games\FreeSpace2 and you won't have any problems.  Also, most of that quote had to do with registry virtualization, it only briefly mentioned file virtualization.

[Kolgena]

...Could this be why my pilot files are corrupting in strange ways in Ant8 when nobody else seems to be able to reproduce the problem? I have my game in Program Files (x86)

[chief1983]

Can't hurt to try moving it.  Have you given Zacam or someone else your original pilot files to see if they can reproduce it from your data?

[mjn.mixael]

...Could this be why my pilot files are corrupting in strange ways in Ant8 when nobody else seems to be able to reproduce the problem? I have my game in Program Files (x86)

I've had tons of corruption problems in Ant8.. i eventually got tired of reporting them and went back to testing Nightlies.

[Zacam]

If it cannot write to data\players, I honestly have no idea how that would screw things up, much less if it would screw things up.

Unlikely though, if it is able to create a .csg as well as a .plr files under Ant-8 pilot code, then it should be capable of reading them from there as well. (no guarantee on that though). The only way to know for sure would be to PUT them into data\players and load them up again.

But I can already tell you that the converter, still needs work. And the CSG parsing itself still needs work. Right now, only the Player Specific bits relating to the reading of (most) of the plr data and saving of that is solid.