Why are games starting to refuse Users\Public\Games as the install target?

Question

I usually install games to C:\Users\Public\Games (Windows 7 x64) so that I don't run into permissions issues (especially while updating), but recently, I've run into a couple of installers that absolutely refuse to install there stating "Cannot install game into chosen directory. Please choose another."

I've made a symbolic link to the Public\Games folder elsewhere and that seems to be a good workaround since the installer is quote happy to install there.

I've checked the permissions and given "Everyone" full control.

This appears to be a limit imposed by the installer itself and not the OS, anyone know WHY that has started to be the norm? Is there a better (more elegant) workaround? Is there some security I've missed?

Answer 1

My guess would be due to licensing restrictions of the game -- I.e. you have got a license to use the software for one user on one machine. Putting it into a Public and/or Shared directory would allow more than one user to run the same game, and they naively try to avoid that by looking for specific directory names.