Well, the time has come. My collection has grown to the point where I need to reallocate my storage.

I know I can move the "models" directory and reassign it in the "Data" section in settings ... but I'd also like to move the "data" folder (which seems to be where the thumbnails and card index is kept).

Currently, my files are stored like this:

X:\Games\iStripper\data
X:\Games\iStripper\models

I would like to change "Games" to "Apps", like this:

X:\Apps\iStripper\data
X:\Apps\iStripper\models

I can see where to specify the "models" folder ... but not where to change the "data" folder?

Can someone help me out please?

Many thanks.

On a Mac the only way to relocate the data folder is by changing the system.DataPath property in the preferences file com.totem.vghd.plist.

On Windows, you must make a similar change in the Registry.

@wtprivate
You can change the Data path in the registry : HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Totem\vghd\System
Make sure to totally stop the software before doing that and, of course, after the change of the directory.

Thanks folks. Looks like I'll need to hack my registry ... wish this was a setting in the app itself, though. Always fraught with danger to mess about with Registry keys.

Appreciate the help.

Cheers

Looks like I'll need to hack my registry

It's not Hacking...
You are making an Edit. using a provided utility included with your Operating system intended for that purpose.

Hacking would be doing something that you are not otherwise able to do with provided tools.

You are making an Edit, not a hack...

I said hack, and I meant it. No reason why this setting shouldn't be managed in the application directly, in my opinion.

Tampering with the registry is always fraught with danger, even when using the provided tools. It's not really a "user friendly" solution either.

That said, it's simple enough, so will go ahead and do that. Would just love to see this surfaced in the app in future is all.

I agree with @wtprivate on this. Changing a registry setting that is not part of a documented user level interface for a program is just as much a hack as using a hex editor to patch its binary - differing only in degree. It is hacking iStripper not hacking the registry. That being said it is a pretty benign hack, the real danger in doing such "registry hacks" lies in not fully understanding what you are doing and, encouraged by being successful, going on to change other settings. There is also the theoretical danger that the meaning of the registry entry may change, or it may even disappear, in a future release - though in this particular case I doubt that will happen.

That being said I do rather wish that Totem would provide a supported way, like that provided for the Models folder, to change the location of the Data folder, or more particularly to change the location of the set of card specific directories and, separately, the Scenes folder while leaving the other miscellaneous data files where they are.

No reason why this setting shouldn't be managed in the application directly

It's not a setting that should normally be changed.
That's why it's not part of the settings in the App itself.

But, should a member wish to move their Data folder set to a different location.
You can use the Tool provided by the Operating system to make an Edit
to the Totem Registry.

Thanks @TheEmu. I am glad you can see reason here.

@Wyldanimal: "...normally be changed"? What's not normal about wanting to move your content to a different location or computer? I totally disagree with you on this one.

It's an easy setting for them to add (since the Registry entry is already there, and adding such a setting to the supported app would take less than 2 hours of work for a good programmer, including testing).

No reason why this setting shouldn't be managed in the application directly

I agree.

We've had this discussion in other threads. Any environmental characteristic the might be changed no matter how frequently should be changeable via the user interaface of the system concerned. In my opinion failure to do so is simply lazyness on the part of the developer (individual or corporate). I see nothing about iStripper that would justify an exception to my general attitude.

I guess I'm the only one who see this differently..
Here is how I see it.

The TEAM does NOT want members to relocate the set of DATA folders.
They want it to remain in the Members profile, in the default installation location.

So there is no Provided Setting in the App to change it.

It's not meant to be changed.

Edit:
(I should Clarify this, this is my View, Not inside information from the Team )
my view is based on questions and answers I've had with the developers over the years.
but not on any Official TEAM communique

@Wyldanimal

Your in my opinion absolutely correct, assertion that

The TEAM does NOT want members to relocate the set of DATA folders.
They want it to remain in the Members profile, in the default installation location.

So there is no Provided Setting in the App to change it.

It's not meant to be changed.

is one reason for regarding using regedit to bypass it is tantamount to an unsupported hack. You can't have it both ways.

it is tantamount to an unsupported hack.

but it is not a Hack.
It is a simple Edit to an existing registry value...

A hack would be altering the application code itself..

Editing of an existing value, is not hacking
You can't have it both ways...

@Wyldanimal

it is a hack of iStripper not a hack of the registry. At the abstract level it makes no difference at all where iStripper keeps the string holding the directory path (that is just an implementation detail) or what tool you use to alter it is is still a hack. In practice of course there is a huge difference in the way that the hack is acheived but whether you use the registry editor or a hex editor makes no difference in principle you are taking advantage of knowing how to change an implementation detail rather than using an intentional user interface feature of the program you are hacking.

Now if Totem provided documentation that said that this registry value was a supported user interface that that would change it from not being a hack to a recognised way of configuring the program. But Totem do not say this in any user level documentation (only a couple of moderators).

This is all a very ***** thing for this particular case - but it is a major thing in the general case.

As an example, if I remember correctly, Totem have in the past changed the name of at least one of the registry keys used to save some of its configutation (I think that used for the models directory). Changes such as this will typically invalidate any previous registry edits using the old name - though the developers can choose to be nice and support both names - whereas using some fully supported mechanism should not encounter any such problems.

Before windows.
DOS had it's configuration files
Config.sys
Autoexec.bat

Both user editable.
Editing of these was expected and common to make the current running instance of DOS
compatible with the App you were going to use.

It was common to have 10's or 100's of variations that you would rename so that DOS was tailored to your Applications requirements.

It was NOT Hacking to edit and change these...



Windows,
In years past, each Application had it's Own .ini file where needed.
In this file were user adjustable Settings / Variables.

It was not Hacking to open an ini file with a text editor and edit one of the values.

Later, ALL of the ini files were consolidated in to what is known as the registry.
They still function just like ini files, but now located in a common repository.

Editing of an Applications Registry values is not Hacking by definition of hacking.

This is the *****
today, persons with little knowledge, have loosely defined a term to the point where everyone
now thinks that it what it means..

Editing an value in the registry is NOT Hacking.
and telling people that it is, is just promoting the ***** even more.

Currently, there is now more apps going back to the ini files type of configuration
only instead of ini files, XML files are now used...

Many apps now have a combination of Registry values and a local XML file
to hold the configuration values.

These once again, unless security is set
are user editable.

When instructed to make an edit
It is NOT hacking to edit these values...


A call to Customer Support
Caller:
The App isn't scaling to my screen resolution...

Support:
There is a registry value for that.
Use registry editor and find the Key XYZZY/PLOUGH/
Please change AutoScale from a 0 to a 1

That is NOT hacking....

Editing an value in the registry is NOT Hacking.
and telling people that it is, is just promoting the ***** even more.

I quote and agree with @Wyldanimal on the subject.

@Wyldanimal

It was not Hacking to open an ini file with a text editor and edit one of the values.

Usually or almost the same what i'm doing in Linux if i need to edit an Configuration File
for an specific Application.
For example my File Browser Ranger or Conky, so nothing really new in the West i guess :)

But if a Developer chooses that a specific part of his Application shouldn't touched by the User,
so it is what is. I don't see any Problems there.

OT
And Honestly Disk Storage, even a modern NVME or M.2 SSD isn't that much expensive any more.
So here for example is a 1 TB NVME SSD for roundabout 135 Bugs 😉

https://youtu.be/-Mgnwn4twZE?t=495

If your Mainboard is Supporting the Connections for that Hardware, but yes Disk Storage
isn't that much expensive any more.
OT/

Windows,
In years past, each Application had it's Own .ini file where needed.
In this file were user adjustable Settings / Variables.

It was not Hacking to open an ini file with a text editor and edit one of the values.

Later, ALL of the ini files were consolidated in to what is known as the registry.
They still function just like ini files, but now located in a common repository.

Editing of an Applications Registry values is not Hacking by definition of hacking.

In my opinion unless there was some user level documentation describing those ini file settings then using an editor to modify them was hacking. This is still true for edits of undocumented items in the registry.

Were Totem to add a simple one or two sentence description to the user manual saying that the data path can be changed by editing the registry item under discussion then it would not be a hack.

I simply can not see how someone can say

The TEAM does NOT want members to relocate the set of DATA folders.
They want it to remain in the Members profile, in the default installation location.

So there is no Provided Setting in the App to change it.

It's not meant to be changed.

and at the same time say that changing it is not a hack.

It is an easy hack, it is a clean hack, it is almost certainly a safe hack. But it is a hack.

It is a subject that I am very sensitive on because in the past I have been ***** to support a piece of software for something like 10 years because someone decided to bypass the user interface and directly use knowledge of various implementation details instead. The editing of am undocumented registry value, though ***** in comparison, in exactly the same sort of thing.

I have also seen, and ***** from, significant maintainance problems arise from people changing program specific environment variables after installation. This is a very close parallel to the case under discussion.

@TheEmu
it's not hacking.....
when a person of knowledge gives out Instructions of which branch and key value to edit.

It does not matter if that information is NOT in the documentation.
Perhaps it is left out, because it is not a change the developers want everyone to make.

But when there is a need, the information of what to edit is handed out on a case by case basis.

it's not a hack...

All for many years, this forum contained a sticky that referred to the Registry "hacks" that were being recommended by a whole bunch of Users.

So as a Mod, I wrote a sticky at the time, that no one was to provide registry "hacks" unless that individual was prepared to support an unlearned member who tried said registry "hack" and stuff it up because of lack of knowledge.

I then set about coming down like the hammer of God to anyone who provided such registry "hacks" and maintained that over many many years.

In those days I was one of the more technical savvy members.

Since the migration to the new Forum, that sticky was discarded and that did not worry me, because in the intervening years, WA became openly active in the Forum and it was obvious that his technical knowledge far exceeded my own. Also and most importantly, WA supported any member who acted on his advise to resolve the issue.

So where are we, its a debate about a word "hack" which I have put in parenthesises in this entire post for a reason.

To me, I still regard a registry edit as a "hack" because that is how I learnt to view it, but as the person who wrote the prohibition against registry "hacks" I don't care whether you call it a "hack" or a system settings edit, so long as whoever is making the suggestion, will support the member if any problems arise.

As WA ALWAYs does that, I do not have any problem with how he defines what he is saying (and he is technically right). Indeed my data file location was amended so long ago that I forget when for exactly the reasons that wtprivate was wanting to achieve.

I can also say that the Totem Development team have long know of people doing this and they did not mind, but what they would have wanted at all costs is to be suddenly faced with a bunch of inexperienced users going and making edits to their registry file without understanding the consequences of what they were doing and then be expecting the Totem team to fix the problems.

Hence my stance so many years ago.

But given how WA has ALWAYS supported members who make registry changes on his behalf, I have NEVER felt any need to criticise his advice.

The issue of whether Totem should provide additional tools is a separate topic and it may be something on their drawing board, as it took them a mere 15 years or so to introduce the ability to change the models folder in their system settings

My system is old...eight years or so....but was very robust and state of the art at time of purchase. Still runs Istripper quite well on my new 4K monitor.

I have had a couple of instances in the past where I needed to change settings on my computer to move to a new drive, and WA provided "hacks"....even a video!...which were extremely helpful in getting the task accomplished. Other users advice was seemingly only relevant to newer systems.

Thanks again to WA for his support of members here.

As far as the definition of the term "hack" I agree with @TheEmu. I also feel that best practices require programmers to eliminate the need for things like registry changes.

@Wyldanimal

it's not hacking.....
when a person of knowledge gives out Instructions of which branch and key value to edit.

I see that on this we will never agree

For over 20 years I have supported several programs. I have often had to resort to suggesting to users that they perform such actions as that beng discussed here - and much more complex even lower level actions - and I have always regarded them as "hacks" no matter how simple or obvious they were. In all cases they were given out by " a person of knowledge" (I wrote the programs in the first place and was also the main end user of one of those) but those workarounds/quick fixes were "hacks" and remained "hacks" until an officially suported "emergency fix release" was made or a regular release incorporated the hack.

I do not in any way suggest such hacks should not be provided nor that they should not be made use of. But I do think that they should be recognised for what they are.

Wow, I really shouldn't wade into this. But here I come... LOL

Way back when I was studying to obtain a Microsoft Certified Professional cert (for Windows 95!!! 😲) the exam prep materials repeatedly emphasized--as if it were a religious mantra--that changes should NEVER be made via the Registry. The exam was focused on the OS level and not applications, so students were directed only to make changes in Control Panel.

Of course, after obtaining my cert and my first real-world job, I quickly learned that Registry edits were commonplace and often recommended by the Windows KB itself.

That certainly will not settle the "hack" question, but it does suggest that making settings changes by editing Registry keys was not the intention of the OS designers.

making settings changes by editing Registry keys was not the intention of the OS designers.

I would think - though - that, if such was the case, we would not get at all an app called Register Editor (regedit) which permits everyone to easily change register values...

Here is the Difference.
If the Application was Written or Designed to Make use of Values in the Registry
then Editing these values is Not HACKING, even if these values are not exposed in some control Panel
or not Documented in the user manual.
But they are intended by the design of the application to be available and used when needed.


If you are using a low level editor such as a Hex Editor, and you are Making Changes to the Applications Binary Code
That is Hacking.

Even the OS, was Designed to use Registry values that Don't normally exist.
Often KB articles will Instruct you to ADD a new registry Key and set it's value.

updates might be made to the OS to enable use of new Registry Keys.
Then Instructions on how to Add and enable them are made.

That is Not Hacking.


If the OS was not Coded to use that Registry Key in the First place.
then It would never know what to do with the new Key you just added.

The OS was written with the Intent that at some time, that registry value would be used.
You Didn't Hack the OS, you just edited the registry to enable a Setting.

Maybe it is because as I stated a few posts back
that over time the Definition of Hacking has become so loosely defined, that
it's no longer clear to many today.

I know the Difference between Hacking and Editing a setting.

And making a registry edit, is NOT hacking.

Telling members that you need to HACK the registry,
just adds to the ***** mongering that already exists surrounding
the registry.

If Instead of all these values being in the registry,
and they were in a Configuration File in the Data folder,
Would you still call it hacking if Instructed to
Use Notepad, Open the configuration file and edit the Path?

I have ***** far too many times from "knowledgable" users of software packages giving such advice that I have learnt the hard way that it is never advisable to encourage naive to do even the simplest of such things without making it clear that at the very least they are using an unofficial mechanism to achieve what they want to do and that there can be no guarantees about it continuing to work. To this end calling it a hack is one part of making that clear.

We currently think we know what the registry entry in question is used for, and we are probably right. But we do not truely know it, and we certainly do not know how it may be used in the future.

For example, Totem could decide to split the Data folder into separate parts each with its own folder and each pointed to by a separate registry entry - perhaps Cards, Scenes, MiscData and Temp. If users are modifying the current registry entry then if Totem want to introduce such a change they have the choice either to break the program for those users who have made use of the old "knowledge" or to involve themselves in extra work to accommodate them.

As a more realistic example, albeit at a lower level, I have ***** from a knowledgeable user (actually a co-developer) who knew that a particular list was implemented as a linked list and rather than use the published API function to navigate from one element to the next used that knowledge to do it himself (despite vigorous objections at the time but "management" allowed him to do so for reasons of "efficiency" and "convenience"). This had two effects

1) We could not later change the implementation to a more efficient one
2) Everything fell to pieces when the system was moved to a multiprocessor

If Instead of all these values being in the registry,
and they were in a Configuration File in the Data folder,
Would you still call it hacking if Instructed to
Use Notepad, Open the configuration file and edit the Path?

If the instructions to use the registry editor or a text editor were in the user manual (or provided in some other similar way) then neither would be a hack. If that information is only passed by a "knowledgable" person (even by someone on the actual development team) then it would still be a hack.

Here is the Difference.
If the Application was Written or Designed to Make use of Values in the Registry
then Editing these values is Not HACKING, even if these values are not exposed in some control Panel
or not Documented in the user manual.
But they are intended by the design of the application to be available and used when needed.

But you yourself have said, about this particular registry entry

It's not meant to be changed.

Consider a hypothetical program that is identical to iStripper in every way except that the protection against using cards copied from another user is controlled by a registry entry that comprises a 128 bit key made up by concatenating the user id with an encryption key and that by replacing the encryption key part with one copied from a different user would allow you to play copies of that user's cards. Now this is a very weak protection scheme but the fact that it can be overcome by exactly the same mechanism as that used to change the data path does not mean that it would be, in your own words, "intended by the design of the application to be available and used when needed."

Try googling

What is the meaning of concatenating

or

Dictionary concatenating.

But to save you the bother it means chaining together. Concatenating AAA with BBB gives AAABBB.