This x1000 but even Microsoft products are creating dotfiles in the users profile directory now and not in AppData where they should be.

I didn't believe you until I checked on my machine.

Madness.

Yep, I'm looking a .dotnet a .nuget and a .vscode folder right now.

Respectful Windows apps should call SHGetKnownFolderPath() with FOLDERID_LocalAppData or FOLDERID_RoamingAppData.

Hardcoding paths is a bad idea, since they can change - indeed, they have already changed once in Vista, and the paths that you suggest are obsolete on Vista and above - it's %UserProfile%\AppData now (although it still provides symlinks for compatibility).