Yep, it's not simple. The page sums up what I said about virutalisation already:
File and registry virtualization helps users who have restricted access to the registry and to the file system write to these protected areas. Virtualization creates a "per user" copy and then redirects successive data operations. For example, assume that an application is running under a Limited User Account or under accounts that require User Account Control permissions. When this application writes to a system location, such as to the %programfiles% folder, Windows Vista redirects write operations and read operations to a user-specific location in the user’s profile folder (%localappdata%\VirtualStore). By default, this location is C:\Users\User_name\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Application_name. Registry virtualization works similarly but applies to registry keys under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE subtree. The keys and data under this subtree are redirected to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\VirtualStore subkey.
Amon. You can't get it to work like that in Vista unless your installer program uses a special script to give your data folder special permissions. Also the data folder must be in a special location (COMMON_APPDATA is the const that returns the correct path).
File and registry virtualization helps users who have restricted access to the registry and to the file system write to these protected areas. Virtualization creates a "per user" copy and then redirects successive data operations. For example, assume that an application is running under a Limited User Account or under accounts that require User Account Control permissions. When this application writes to a system location, such as to the %programfiles% folder, Windows Vista redirects write operations and read operations to a user-specific location in the user’s profile folder (%localappdata%\VirtualStore). By default, this location is C:\Users\User_name\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Application_name. Registry virtualization works similarly but applies to registry keys under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE subtree. The keys and data under this subtree are redirected to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\VirtualStore subkey.
Amon. You can't get it to work like that in Vista unless your installer program uses a special script to give your data folder special permissions. Also the data folder must be in a special location (COMMON_APPDATA is the const that returns the correct path).