Before whining about this inform yourself why programs NEED to use APPDATA folders these days. The days of Windows 3.x are thst long gone that you can now run Windows 3.x in Dosbox.
The reason for appdata is that on the last two incarnations of Windows (Vista and 7) a normal user cannot modify content of the program folder when installed in c:/program files without admin rights. A move that is right in todays age of trojans and virus.
Simple as that.
And if you further inform yourself you will learn how to use the conf in the program folder anyway.

And before you rant about Vista and 7, please spare us. Anybody with internet connection read such rants before and it doesn't matter anyway. Dosbox and other programs need to support current Windows versions. If they do it in a way that runs on old unsupported (or soon to be unsupported (by MS I mean)) Windows versions, the better.

As an alternative you can use D-Fend reloaded in portable mode 😀

I have D-Fend reloaded and ScummVM on a 16GB USB flash drive with a few games. That way I can play on pretty much any windows PC without having to install anything.

It is modern "best practices" and adds an extra layer security for Windows. DOSBox is simply doing what any modern application does that needs to write files. If it wasn't following proper methods, Windows would just sent it to the Virtual Store, anyway, rather than allowing it to be written to the %ProgramFiles% directory.

As long as the installer creates the shortcut to it, you have an easy way for access to it. It is also easy enough to change if you really want to. It is a moot point, anyway, as most users either use a front end or specify specific conf files to start their different games.

Eros wrote:

Yes, I HATE, when programs scatter their crap all around the HD

If it bothers you that much then install DOSBox to a subfolder in "My Documents".

Type "config -writeconf dosbox.conf" in DOSBox to create a config file in the DOSBox directory.

Thread closed due to obvious reasons.