I recently resolved a problem related to Windows 7 Enterprise and Windows 8 Pro somehow keeping two versions of a configuration file under 'Program Files'. I found editing a config file as my user account had no effect on how the app launched. But when I edited as Administrator I saw the file was different and the app was using that version of the config file. Now if I view the file from either the user account or Administrator I still see two versions of the file at the apparent same path.
- how did I get into this mode?
- how can I get the application out of this mode?
App specific details
The specific problem I had was that when I edited this NetBeans configuration file at
C:\Program Files\Netbeans 7.3.1\etc\netbeans.conf
to point to a new JDK home (see related question/answer) it had no effect. By apparent serendipity I thought to edit the file as Administrator and that worked.
As mentioned above when I view the file from my user account vs Administrator I see two versions of this file at the same location. What is going on?
UPDATE:
I believe I found part of the answer (see https://superuser.com/a/68006/47313). But if anyone has more insight into when this happens I'd appreciate it.
Apparently instead of me as a user being told I don't have rights to update a file under Program Files, I now am able to write the file and it ends up in %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore... . I have no idea when this behavior changed (i.e. instead of being told don't have admin rights it just writes to this shadow area).
