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Installation of some IBM products on Windows 7 gives me this warning.

"To run the application without administrative privileges on Windows 7 operating system, you must install the application package into a directory that is not virtualized. The Program Files directory on Windows 7 is virtualized."

What does a virtualized directory mean?

I am assuming here it implies virtualization using Microsoft virtualization technologies.

If I use other virtualization technologies such as VMWare does this warning make any sense?

LittleBobbyTables - Au Revoir
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Manglu
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  • I am not sure why it is off topic. I noticed this message when I was installing IBM Software and it was not evident whether this referred to virtualization or something else. Thanks to Martins' answer I have a better understanding of what this means. – Manglu Aug 07 '13 at 00:21

1 Answers1

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A virtualized directory redirects write attempts to a hidden folder in the user profile if the user does not have write access to the directory itself (think of the hidden folder as a "writable overlay"). It is not related to "virtual machine" technology.

Read the full story: http://blogs.windows.com/windows/archive/b/developers/archive/2009/08/04/user-account-control-data-redirection.aspx

Martin Binder
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  • Thanks Martin. It helped. After reading this, I noticed another link that helped in improving my understanding. https://decibel.ni.com/content/groups/windows-7/blog/2009/10/02/uac-virtualization-and-how-it-affects-your-installers – Manglu Jul 23 '13 at 22:33