Add TestStand application data directory to default list of TestStand search directories.

[RyanWright]

The TestStand Deployment Utility lets you select the TestStand Application Data directory as an installation directory for files.  This is great because the installers know how to handle this path which differs between operations systems (such as Windows XP and Windows 7).  Unfortunately, there is no similar entry for the TestStand Application Data directory in the list of default TestStand search directories.  There really needs to be an equivalent TestStand Application Data directory entry there because it will need to be a search directory required by a deployment that installed files to that location.

Yes, you can add the absolute path to the Application Data directory to the TestStand search directories by hand, but the paths differ from operating system to operating system.  This means that if you want to create a deployment that runs on multiple operating systems, you have to manually add search directory entries corresponding to the Application Data directory for each operating system on which you are running, even if they are not used.  Then you have to include the modified TestExec.ini with your deployment.  If the TestStand default search directories contained an entry corresponding to the Application Data directory and interpreted that entry according to operating system (the same as the TestStand Public Directory entry), that would be fabulous.  That way, you could create a single deployment installer that worked on multiple operating systems instead of creating individual installers for different operating systems.

The  reason why I am making this suggestion is that I have files in my deployment that need to be written at run-time by my sequence files but the deployment needs to run on a Windows 7 computer without administrator privileges.  If you try to write files from an application running under Windows 7 without administrator privileges, you will get access denial errors unless the files are located in all but a few defined paths.  The TestStand Application Data and Public directories are examples of those paths.

Also, for the sake of consistency, if the TestStand Deployment Utility allows you to install files to the Application Data directory, the TestStand search directories should also provide support for the same location since search directories determine where to load dependencies.