[Feature Request] Change Install Location & Remove UAC Requirement

[affectioned]

Explain in detail what your suggested feature would be used for.

Currently, the VRCX installer requires administrator privileges (UAC) and installs into C:\Program Files\VRCX, a system-wide directory. However, VRCX does not perform actions that require elevated permissions, such as modifying system settings or installing drivers.

This feature request proposes modifying the installer to install VRCX in %LocalAppData%\Programs\VRCX, similar to how Discord and other modern applications operate. Doing so would:

• Remove the need for UAC elevation, allowing users to install and update VRCX seamlessly without security prompts.
• Enable per-user installations, preventing conflicts when multiple users share a computer.
• Improve security and sandboxing, as VRCX would run within the user’s environment rather than requiring unnecessary system-wide access.
• Simplify auto-updates, eliminating the need for admin approval every time VRCX is updated.

Even though this project is open source, that doesn’t justify requiring UAC if the application doesn’t actually need elevated permissions. On my system, I have a GPO policy enabled called "Require Trusted Path for Credential Entry", which makes it inconvenient to approve UAC prompts. Given that I rarely encounter UAC prompts for daily-use applications, it feels unnecessary in this case and more like an afterthought to package VRCX as an installable program rather than an actual requirement.

As always I am open to any counter arguments to my point.

[DJDavid98]

Being able to change the install location would also allow installing to a secondary drive where I won't keep losing all of my VRCX logs each time I do a clean Windows install, so I am all for this

[Natsumi-sama]

Install location isn't the same as database location, you can move your database by editing your %AppData%\VRCX\VRCX.json file.

[Natsumi-sama]

Also the installer allows you to set a custom install location during first install, you can uninstall and install again without losing any data, this wont fix this issue regarding the UAC prompt but it is an option.

[DJDavid98]

I genuinely had no idea, it's good to know you can install to a different place and move the DB, guess I am not going to lose it anymore. Where is this documented btw?

[Natsumi-sama]

https://github.com/vrcx-team/VRCX/wiki/Launch-parameters-&-VRCX.json#vrcxjson

[DJDavid98]

Ah, cheers!