Windows UAC safe location to save scripts?

[JHanna-NtstF0]

Is there any Photoshop support for storing scripts in a location that is not under c:\program files (or c:\program files (x86))? I was hoping c:\users\<username>\appdata\roaming\adobe\presets\ would work but making a \scripts folder in there and storing scripts doesn't result in those scripts being loaded/parsed by Photoshop. I've searched online and in the scripting docs. Maybe I've missed it, but I haven't found any documentation stating how you can integrate Photoshop into a pipeline w/ custom scripts on a machine that will have UAC enabled and may not have administrator privileges. Any help people can provide in how to do this would be appreciated.

[matias.kiviniemi]

It goes both ways, for example panels load from ...\roaming\Adobe\CEP\extensions but Generator Plugins just from PHOTOSHOPFOLDER\Plug-ins\Generator. Unfortunately if you found nothing, probably that's the case. It's the old stuff and it's only lately that Microsoft implemented special permissions on Program Files. It's not enough make a .cmd that copies files have user right click and "run as administrator", script still has insufficient permissions.

One option is to package your scripts as a HTML panel (e.g. just buttons that run scripts) and that you can provision in the above place. Another options is package the scripts as an ZXP and use "$photoshopappfolder/where/you/need/to/put/them" as file destination.

As might have noticed, it's a bit of a bazaar that's built over a few decades and takes some trial and error

[Chuck Uebele]

I'd like to know also.

[matias.kiviniemi]

This is probably the best "specification".. If they built an ZXP parser for it, you can probably get software to load stuff from there. Rest is trial and error

Path tokens

[JJMack]

I keep all my scripts in my own Scripts tree.   In each version of Photoshop I have installed on my machine I place a link to my Scripts tree into Photoshop Presets\Scripts Folder. All versions of Photoshop use the same copy of my scripts and Scripts installed in my Scripts tree are listed in Photoshop's menu File>Scripts>My Script Name.  Except those that are Plug-in scripts I have them listed in menu File>Automate>My Plug-in Script Name.

[xbytor2]

One technique that I use is to create an Action Set that contains actions for all of my commonly used scripts. That complete avoids the UAC problem.

[Chuck Uebele]

That would work.

[JHanna-NtstF0]

That still creates the issue of having to write into the Photoshop installation folder, JJMack. So I'd be back to the problem of having to allow users to store things in a UAC prohibited location.

It's really odd, at least to me, that Adobe did move quite a lot of stuff over to %appdata%\Adobe\ folders, which is wonderful. It seems a strange omission that \presets\scripts weren't included in that.

[matias.kiviniemi]

Also Plug-ins\Generator is an issue.

The %appdata%-option is also better because you can make a zxp that provisions multiple folders under %appdata%. But you can't make a zxp that provisions multiple photoshop versions because the $photoshopappfolder-token will always resolve to latest version.

[SuperMerlin]

You could create a script folder off the Deco folder as Adobe has removed UAC from that folder.

[Chuck Uebele]

You could create a script folder off the Deco folder as Adobe has removed UAC from that folder.

Putting regular Extend script off the Deco folder will not make them show up in the file menu in the scripts folder. It will make the script show up in the list for the Deco fill script, but those scripts use a different API and will throw an error if run from that menu. Plus, that folder is still in the program file tree structure which Windows limits user access.

[SuperMerlin]

You need to try it then! JSX files do show up in Photoshop, I tried it with a folder called Scripts. The Deco folder is open to Everyone!

[Chuck Uebele]

I did try, before I posted my last comment, and it didn't show up in the scripts, only the Deco fill list, but I'm on Win 7 using 2014. Maybe it's different with 2015 and win 8 or win 10.

[SuperMerlin]

I am on Windows 7 using CS6.

[Chuck Uebele]

I'll have to try that on the one of my computers that is still running Win 7 & CS6.

[Chuck Uebele]

That does work with CS6 & Win 7, but the script does also show up in the Deco script list. With CS6, the deco script was brand new, and the engineer was hoping people would edit the provided scripts to create their own or just to modify the behavior of the existing script. Several of us realized that most users would never do that and came up with some different ways to create a UI. The issue was that anything you put in the deco folder would show up in the Deco list. They got around that by using an underscore for the files that weren't suppose to appear in the Deco list.