> Preface:  I do desktop setups (among other things) and am not a POV-Ray user.
>
> When I install POV-Ray v3.7rc3 as an administrator and select the option to
> install it into c:\Program Files, it creates files in my install-user's "My
> Documents".  If I move/delete that "POV-Ray" folder inside of "My Documents" and
> then start POV-Ray, it gives me an error about not finding "Colors.inc".
>
> The problem is that I need to install this so that users other than myself (who
> may or may not be admins or have logged in yet) can use POV-Ray.  Ideally, when
> POV-Ray is run for the first time, it would check if these files exist in
> the default location inside the current user's profile (wherever that might be)
> and creat them there if needed.  Everybody could be happy then.
>
> It also doesn't appear that I can simply copy this folder to the default user's
> profile (so that it is picked up for new users at least) because some of the
> files have the install-user's profile path coded in (particularly povray.ini and
> pvengine.ini).  Can I use system variables (like %userprofile%) in these files?
> I don't really want to do it this way though because copying the nearly 2000(!)
> files and folders really slows down first logins for everyone (when only a small
> percentage will be using POV-Ray).
>
> [An aside: Do users really need to edit 1800+ files?  Couldn't there be default
> settings in a folder under "Program Files\POV-Ray" that are overridden if the
> user chooses to create any specific file/setting in their "POV-Ray profile"?
> That would keep the number of user-side files small, allow administrators to
> define the defaults they want, and still allow customization by knowledgeable
> users.]
>
> I'm willing to use another option (though also not ideal) and put the folder
> into the "Public Documents" folder so that all users could function, but I don't
> know how to get POV-Ray to recognize that location.  The error for "Colors.inc"
> not being found indicates that I can point to alternate locations, but I can't
> find any (working) information on how to do that.
>
> I will appreciate any insight you can offer.
>
> Thanks,
> Erich
>
>
>
>

The user only need to edit, or personalise, some of the files.
Those are: povray.ini and pvengine.ini

Then, those files can point to the location where the common files are 
located: Have everyone use the same include folder.

Edit povray.ini to point to the actual location of the include folder by 
adding this line:
input__File_Name=<path to the include folder>

And add those lines to the pvengine.ini:
[Permitted Input Paths]
1=<path to the include folder>
Make sure that each users have read permission to that folder. They 
don't need write permission.

Do that before you copy those to each user's folder so you only have to 
edit it once.

You can also have all renders sent to the same folder:
In povray.ini:
Output_File_Name=d:\common images folder\

In pvengine.ini:
[Permitted output Paths]
1=d:\common images folder\
Use your actual path. You can use a location in the All Users folder or 
any other location of your choice.

In that case, it's also advisable to add that location as a possible 
input path, as one scene can be used to generate an image map or height 
field for another.

The user can always create he's own inc and ini files that can reside in 
the same folder as his pov files.

Apart from the 2 mentioned ini files, you realy only need to copy the 
Scenes folder to the user's folders.





Alain

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