I'm trying to find the data folder but no luck: there's no 'Steam' folder in Program Files, a search for anything Steam-related only reveals ETW, and a search for Skyrim only comes up with my saved games. There's no data folder anywhere to be found. I've uninstalled and re-downloaded the game, and it's the same thing. Can anyone help me?

if you are on 64bit Windows it's C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\skyrim

Wherever you installed Steam to. Can't help you on this.

Just a note: don't keep Steam installed in Program Files if it is there. Program Files causes problems for many reasons, UAC being one of them. When you find your install: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7418-YUBN-8129

The best thing would be to install Steam somewhere else, and not in program files. This is true for pretty much any program you install using something later than Windows XP.

As it is now, it's probably located in your user profile under APPDATA (It's a hidden folder).

Wait, what kind of problems can Steam cause if it's your Program Files? I installed mine there (64-bit Windows 7), and I don't really have any problems with it.

It's hard to say, really. Program Files does some weird things to programs. It always has, even before UAC was around.

That program files (x86) sounds like it's worth a shot. I remember seeing that, but didn't look inside it. If I don't find it, I'll just wait for the Ck and make my own mods

Thank you all for commenting.

I've never had an issue with Program Files in the 5 years I've been using Vista. If UAC is the problem then turn it off. It's not protecting you from anything anyway.

Turning UAC off is bad. Really bad. It's there to prevent stuff from messing around. It is protecting you.

No, it's not. UAC is just training you to mash the 'allow' button every time the little window pops up. It's an illusion of security. It doesn't even ask for your password the way the root dialog does in Linux. The most insidious malware isn't stopped by UAC at all.

Wrong. That would be user error, then. It does work. The user just needs to read the prompts. It's like saying you didn't agree to selling away your house in a EULA even though it has a clause in it and then saying it wasn't your fault. Of course it's your fault, you're supposed to read the things.

UAC does work. It's the users who don't.

I'll challenge you on this one. I find myself being the informal tech support for 3 households of friends/ family. These are people with little computer savvy or more importantly, little confidence to learn. All of these folks are so paranoid about malware that I can't even get them to update their antivirus programs. When UAC pops up they freak out. Yet somehow, my PC with no UAC is malware free... all the damn time. Antivirus and anti malware scans almost never turn up a threat. Even when scanning from safe mode. Even when scanning the HDD from Linux. Yet somehow these people always have a dozen or so infections on their systems. They don't allow UAC prompts. Ever. How do you explain this? I say it's safe surfing habits, not UAC that keep you safe. Keep your malware/ antivirus programs up to date and learn to spot dubious web pages. UAC is no substitute for safe computing. Look at the advice in this thread: UAC is blamed for borking the Program Files folder so people are installing their apps to other directories? Does that make sense to you? How is UAC protecting you when you intentionally circumvent it? How well implemented is UAC if it breaks the default install directory? You can keep your UAC. I turned it off five years ago and have never had an issue.

I can keep my UAC? I don't have it on my computer. I don't use Windows. I run Unix >.>

It's not the computer, it's the user. UAC is meant to add an extra step. It does it well. The users are just generally too lazy to read the things. Again, if you sign a contract without reading it who's fault is that? It's the same exact thing.

Uh, just to throw this out there: The reason people may find issues with the programs files folder is its default NTFS permissions, nothing to do with UAC. The reason UAC is so useless is because yah most malware circumvents that any ways and the even bigger problem is most people just assume that they should always be using an administrator capable account, defeating the NTFS permissions and UAC methods entirely.

I am both guilty of running as an admin account and turning off UAC, but I've yet to experience any issues related to the programs files folder...except for older games trying to install through the insanely long file paths that programs files + steam create and they weren't built to handle more then a 255 character path string...tada! (Btw Civ4 was incredibly guilty of that, for instance)

Are you playing Skyrim on your Unix rig? If not, I'm not really certain what you have to contribute to this conversation. And you do have something like UAC, you are prompted for admin privileges whenever your actions affect the system environment.

It's almost like you actually read my post and are agreeing with me.

You never said I had to be playing a game. And, no, I am not prompted. I do everything explicitly through the command line. Things won't run unless I login as root to begin with. They won't prompt me, just say I don't have the privies to do this or that.

That said, this has obviously gotten out of hand but my point remains.

My personal opinion is UAC is more of an annoyance than a help.
If you aren't an idiot and you watch what you download and install you aren't going to get viruses.

On topic: By default on 64-bit Windows Steam installs to Program Files (x86)/Steam, it will only install to Program Files on x86 Windows.
Also: LOLVISTA

Agreed...UAC svcks! Never used it, never will. It's just another prompt to click accept to. It doesn't provide any useful information what so ever. Sorry, but that's just me.

I have, at times, installed it in other folders. I have a c: drive I boot from and use for applications as well as a d: drive I install games on. In this current build I use d:games(86)\steam