By default, most Windows programs install themselves in a folder called c:\program files\<company name>\<program name>. A-Shell, by contrast, installs itself in the folder c:\vm\miame, although this can be changed by the user at the time of installation. If you need or want to change the installation directory, you can do so without penalty or complication. However, A-Shell uses its unconventional installation directory tree for historical and functional reasons, and you should make sure you know what you're doing before changing the installation folder. This is especially true if other people or computers are involved in your A-Shell environment.

As noted above, A-Shell stores its primary configuration information in ordinary files within the A-shell directory tree rather than in the Registry. This allows the entire A-Shell system—both application and data—to be backed up, copied, or moved, with ordinary file system commands. A few caveats:

•   ATE uses the Registry to store connection profiles, although they can be exported to and imported from files.

•   A-Shell's main configuration file, miame.ini, contains references to file locations. Depending on whether they are fully qualified, or based on environment variables, you may need to adjust them if you move the entire directory tree to another location.

•   User-customized settings, such as initial window size and position, color scheme, etc., may be saved via File > Save Settings either within the main A-Shell directory tree or in the Windows standard user-specific %APPDATA% directory. These are not critical and can easily be re-customized, but should be noted if you want to make a complete backup or move.

•   A-Shell and ATE both use the Registry to save user interface history information, such as XTREE configurations, last printer selected, last dialog positions, etc. Again, these are not critical to operation.

•   One or more external COM DLLs may get registered with Windows during installation. These registrations would be broken by relocation of the directory tree; the simplest remedy for that would be to re-run the installer/updater pointing to the new location.

A-Shell may be installed multiple times on a PC. If it is installed in different folders, and you can keep the start-up icons and commands separate, then different versions of A-Shell can exist and run on the PC without problem. If you install a new version over the top of an old one (i.e., into the directory where A-Shell already exists), then obviously the old program files will be overwritten with the new ones. Note, however, than none of the configuration files will be overwritten, and all of your previous settings and values—including anything written onto A-Shell disks and other devices—will be preserved.