An update (in case anyone cares) now that I'm updating to RC6...

What has worked for us is to copy the folders that are placed in the
install-user's Documents directory, place them in the POV-Ray directory under
Program Files and delete the POV-Ray directory under Documents. Then we replace
all the program shortcuts with a disguised .bat file containing:

========
@echo off

if exist "%userprofile%\Documents\POV-Ray" goto _Launch

echo Initializing POV-Ray user files.
echo Please be patient, this may take a minute.

robocopy "C:\Program Files\POV-Ray\v3.7 RC6\ini"
"%userprofile%\Documents\POV-Ray\v3.7\ini" /e /copy:D /mt >nul
robocopy "C:\Program Files\POV-Ray\v3.7 RC6\include"
"%userprofile%\Documents\POV-Ray\v3.7\include" /e /copy:D /mt >nul
robocopy "C:\Program Files\POV-Ray\v3.7 RC6\Scenes"
"%userprofile%\Documents\POV-Ray\v3.7\Scenes" /e /copy:D /mt >nul
robocopy "C:\Program Files\POV-Ray\v3.7 RC6\Insert Menu"
"%userprofile%\Documents\POV-Ray\v3.7\Insert Menu" /e /copy:D /mt >nul

:_Launch
start "Launching POV-Ray" "C:\Program Files\POV-Ray\v3.7 RC6\bin\pvengine64.exe"
%*

==========

This isn't perfect as any third-party program that calls POV-Ray before the user
has run it through the script will hit some errors, but it is the best I've been
able to configure.  Obviously, this is for Win7 (x64), but the XP version only
needs changes to the paths and a switch to xcopy instead of robocopy.

If my stupid .bat file can do this, I think this kind of user-initialization
would be pretty darn easy to implement in the POV-Ray code itself;  On start,
check for the existence of basic user settings in the user's documents
directory, and if they don't exist copy the defaults over from the install
location.  That way POV-Ray could be default-installed by an administrator, and
every current and future user would be able to just use it.  Easy all the way
around even if it isn't "proper" by using the installer function to handle it.

The current method requires either every user to install it themselves, or the
administrator/installer to copy the settings files to the default profile (for
future users) AND copy them into each existing user's profile.  It seems
confusing and messy and rife for human error.

Anyway, I hope this helps someone, someday.

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