[DicheBach]

In defense of "User Account Control" . . . in an active directory "enterprise" context it makes great sense. It is the backbone of how a network admin regulates access.

For one of our home PCs, it represents little more than an annoyance.

If an application absolutely "insists" it wants to live in that god forsaken X86 place, I'll do it . . . if I must.

But yeah: Steam lives in its own directory on my machine.
H:\Steam

As Barracuda seems to have shown, that isn't really necessary even in those instances where UAC interferes with a particular app, but it is just easier--IF you realize at the time you are setting up a new machine NOT to follow Valve's built in suggestion to install it in x86 . . .

I gave up on trying to redirect files away from the H:\User\MyDocuments and Libraris:\Documents\Blah-dee-blah directories

long ago. Less trouble to just learn how developers have adapted to this OS's organizational conventions and use those principles to try to figure out where something actually is when/if it gets "lost" . . .

However, the strength of Windows OS has to be that it is so flexible and configurable for the end user (IF they put in the time to learn how it works). As it seems Barracuda showed, with Windows there is almost always a work around for anything you want to work around, though it may be obscure, complex and difficult to resolve (the way the overwrite mode can get inadvertently turned on in so many Windows user interface contexts comes to mind).