Store server and clients configs in a permanent location by default

[vmatt]

Hey, I haven't even noticed that when I created the WG server and client configs, because of some AD issue, the admin account was using a temporary profile - in these cases, a TEMP user profile created under C:\Users\TEMP.

Everything was good for months, but today I wanted to update the client configuration. When I signed in, all of my configurations were gone. As it turned out, they were created in %APPDATA%.

I found the option to change the server & client config locations, however, at this point I lost the server private key, so I had to redeploy configurations on all client machines.

I also changed the config location, however my recommendation in general, that it would be better to ask the user explicitly - for example during the installation process - to set a more safe location for storing the configurations, and raise awarness of the possible issues storing credentials in the %APPDATA% folder. Thanks.

Update: I was able to most of the configs with Recuva

[micahmo]

Hey @vmatt, I'm really sorry this happened, and I'm glad you were able to recover the files with Recuva. As you found, there is an option to change the config location, but it doesn't help if the files are already gone!

my recommendation in general, that it would be better to ask the user explicitly . . . raise awarness of the possible issues storing credentials in the %APPDATA% folder

I have two concerns and a question.

First, there is extra work for the user to do upfront, and most people will blow through install without changing things anyway, so I'm not sure this will catch many cases. Second, I don't want people to get in the habit of storing these files outside of their user profile, since they contain sensitive data.

Finally, are there really any other issues with %APPDATA% when it is under a real user profile instead of TEMP? I ask because, if TEMP is the only problem, I can detect that one case and choose another directory.

Thanks for raising this and for the suggestion! Let me know what you think. And sorry again!