Why does Phex save downloads to the Administrator's Documents - Application Data folder?
It's a hidden folder.

You can set where to save them yourself.
Phex Options -> Download and sharing settings -> Directories.

Thanks but I know that.
I am asking why it is that a hidden folder is used as the default.
For most users this must be a big mistake. There is no warning that if the default folder is used than most users will not be able to easily manage any of their downloaded files. They will need help to do some very simple and basic things.
It is a very bad default setting. I hope they change it to something more usable in the real world.

We tried coming up with alternate default download folders for the different systems, but we didn't yet find a solution we were really happy with.

Mainly we didn't yet find a good download for GNU/Linux.

What we need are good default locations for
* Windows
* MacOSX
* The different GNU/Linux distributions

Would you like to contribute here?

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Further to the subject of hidden folders and files-

I just read that Limewire puts its prefs files in Application Data as well.
This is all stupid. All of it.
I don't mean to give the impression that I am negative about Phex- Not at all!
And as far as Limewire is concerned, the only time I ever pretend to use it is for testing purposes on a computer whose life expectancy as per the operating system's survival is not important to me. It's junk. Cynical junk.
My point is that there is no excuse or justification behind hiding anything in a p2p application.
I do appreciate the reasoning behind some of the arguments because of the requirements of writing a so-called multi platform client.
Also that development time is limited unless you can do it as the man from Miami u$ed to do it! I understand all of that. It still changes nothing.
Neither the prefs folder nor, most definitely, the downloads folder shoud be hidden. I mean no one has to put downloads in Administrator > Documents and Settings > Application Data.

Sorry Herr arne_bab! I hope you do not think I am being personally negative.

Gesundheit until the next one!

Where should the preferences files be, so that they don't confuse the ones who aren't that adept with computers, but are still accessible?

For MacOSX it seems to me that prefs should be in ~/Application Support/Phex

But what should be the default location for downloads?

And which one for GNU/Linux / Unix and for WIndows?

We tried to find good locations about half a year ago, but we couldn't come up with a solution for all platforms, so we delayed changing them.

I use GNU/Linux myself, but I'm not sure which location of downloads would be best for the greatest part of our users. Firefox puts everything on the desktop, but I don't know if that's the right approach.

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Greetings, arne

I hope to be more regular here in my postings,
I see that nothing has yet changed about the default downloads folder location.
I hope we can talk about this and many other topics very soon.
Best wishes to you and Pastor Martin.

How is this for more regular?

Arne, just to start the discussion again, and I do appreciate that Phex is multi-platform and that multi-versions = multi-labour-----------
But, what about maybe at the minimum placing the completed downloads folder in the same folder that is used by the program itself?

In Windows this would be "normally" C:\Program Files\Phex(blah blah version number)\Downloads\"downloaded files" or whatever

Is this something that would be so difficult to code respective of the other OSs ?
And, if the answer to that last question is, yes, so what?
It is still more important that all Phex users have no problems instantly finding and opening their Phex downloads folder, right?

I have tried many times to show my friends what they need to do and if they are going to be able to access their downloads folder when I am not around to help them it means I have to leave their Windows set up to always show hidden folders. This is crazy and a for sure way to cause big big problems, right? What's that funny fuzzy not in focus icon there? I don't need that so I'll delete it.
KAPUT.

Prefs should of course be inside ..\Program Files\Phex\Prefs\ (or as an 'open file' within the Phex folder).

What we need is information, where the download folder would be most "natural" for users, so most people find it in a snap.

That's the bigger problem.

If we'd for example put the downloaded files into

C:\Program Files\Phex(blah blah version number)\Downloads\

I'm sure at the time of the next update, many users would come in saying "Where are my downloads? I searched for them in ...\Phex(current version)\Downloads\ and they are gone."

-> still in the old folder.

In GNU/Linux the problem is a bit bigger, still, since there is no standard location there.

MacOSX seems to have fixed it, btw.
In 10.5 there is a ~/Downloads folder by default, so

~/Downloads/Phex ; completed downloads

~/Application Support/Phex/Incomplete ; Incomplete downloads

~/Application Support/Phex/Prefs ; Settings

would be the right locations for OSX (one down, two to define ).

Still thanks for the feedback!

Which location do you think would be best for windows downloads?

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Other p2p programs such as LimeWire sometimes see users using their program folder as the download location, then after they update the program find their downloads have all been erased by the updated program.