<p dir="auto">The current installation location makes all the files visible to tools that use the Windows Indexer, spamming it a bit</p>
<p dir="auto">In the Linux world, the convention is to put user-specific application configuration in <code class="notranslate">~/.folder</code> or <code class="notranslate">~/.file</code>.  In the Windows world, this is not the case.  User-specific settings have a well defined place they should go which is <code class="notranslate">~/AppData/(Local|Roaming|LocalLow)</code>.</p>
<p dir="auto">Details on exactly which of the three folders to use can be found here: <a href="http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/what-appdata-folder" rel="nofollow">http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/what-appdata-folder</a></p>
<p dir="auto">Additional information about how to access the different paths can be found here (a bit old, but still valuable):<br>
<a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/b/patricka/archive/2010/03/18/where-should-i-store-my-data-and-configuration-files-if-i-target-multiple-os-versions.aspx" rel="nofollow">http://blogs.msdn.com/b/patricka/archive/2010/03/18/where-should-i-store-my-data-and-configuration-files-if-i-target-multiple-os-versions.aspx</a></p>
<p dir="auto">Reasoning: <code class="notranslate">~/.(file|folder)</code> is not hidden on Windows and it is not the place an experienced Windows developer would look for user settings.  It also pollutes the user directory which is meant to be the place for user documents and files that they interact with directly (word document, photos, videos, downloads, etc.).</p>