A typical RetroPlatform installation on
Windows groups files into four locations
(shared vs. application-specific
executables, shared vs. application-specific
data files):
- Shared RetroPlatform Windows
executables are located in "C:\Program
Files (x86)\Common
Files\Cloanto\RetroPlatform" (or
similar, depending on operating system,
language and x86 vs. x64 architecture)
- Package-specific Windows executables
are located inside "C:\Program Files
(x86)\Cloanto\Amiga Forever" (or
similar)
- Shared RetroPlatform data files are
located in the default system data
folder at
"C:\ProgramData\Cloanto\RetroPlatform"
(or similar)
- All other data
files, including files meant to be executed in an emulation
environment (Amiga, C64, etc.), are stored inside the
public user data folder at
"C:\Users\Public\Documents\Amiga Files"
or similar ("Amiga Files",
etc.)
This structure achieves two goals:
- It avoids duplication and simplifies
maintenance when multiple RetroPlatform
packages are installed (e.g.
Amiga Forever,
C64
Forever and/or custom packages)
- It adheres to the latest security
best practices (to contrast malware,
Windows program files should be
installed or modified only with
administrative privileges, but
administrative privileges should not be
required for other operations, including
for example running an emulated system
with read/write access to the emulated
system)
Environment Variables
Cloanto's RetroPlatform-powered installers
(e.g for Amiga Forever) define a number of
environment variables which make it possible to locate the
installation (e.g. from batch files) without accessing the registry. In the
"%%" notation used in directory paths, the
four variables corresponding to the
directories introduced before are:
- %RETROPLATFORMROOT%
- %AMIGAFOREVERROOT%,
%C64FOREVERROOT%, etc.
- %RETROPLATFORMDATA%
- %AMIGAFOREVERDATA%,
%C64FOREVERDATA%, etc.
The %RETROPLATFORMROOT% and %RETROPLATFORMDATA% variables are set from
version 2009.1 and higher of the software.
%AMIGAFOREVERROOT% was first set in Amiga
Forever 6.0. %AMIGAFOREVERDATA% was first
set in Amiga Forever 2005. Between version
6.0 and version 7.0, a "year version" format
was used, i.e. versions 2005 to 2014 should
be considered to fit into the 6.x range.
System Registry Values
The %RETROPLATFORMROOT% and %RETROPLATFORMDATA% environment
variables are also respectively stored in the "Path" and "DataPath"
values of the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Cloanto\RetroPlatform" registry
key. There is no version-specific branch. On 64-bit systems,
keep in mind that 32-bit keys that on 32-bit systems used to be
under "SOFTWARE" are one level below, under the "Wow6432Node"
redirection subnode.
The %AMIGAFOREVERROOT% path is
also stored in the "Path" value of the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Cloanto\Amiga
Forever\#.#" registry
key, where "#.#" is the version number. Version numbers used so far
in the registry are "1.0", "1.1", "2.0", "3.0", "4.0", "5.0", "6.0",
"2005.0", "2006.0", "2008.0", "2009.0", "2010.0",
"2011.0", "2012.0", "2013.0", "7.0"
and "7.1" (in
this order). Amiga Forever 2014 also used
the "2013.0" key.
The %AMIGAFOREVERDATA% path is
also stored in the "AmigaFiles" value of the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Cloanto\Amiga
Forever\#.#" registry
key. The "AmigaFiles" value was introduced in Amiga Forever
2005.
In case of multiple
entries, higher-version numbers should be given priority, also considering
that "7" (and higher) comes after "2013".
The year-based versioning in the system
registry was used only temporarily, because
numbers higher than 255 are not supported
well by some system functions.
C64 Forever uses version values that
are a close match to those of Amiga Forever.
In both Amiga Forever and C64 Forever,
the Change Folder Location feature also
updates the system registry and environment
variable values.
Amiga Forever - Additional Information
The following article explains how to programmatically find
the "Amiga Files" directory on Windows, independently of an
Amiga Forever installation:
The following article explains where other files, including
floppy disk image files, are located:
The following article has a focus on locating ROM and
operating system files, both in an Amiga Forever installation, and on CD:
The following article explains how to find the ROM and OS
files on Android systems:
