latest emacsW32 treats %USERPROFILE%\Application Data as link to %HOME%

[Nate Schley]

I just downloaded Emacs-23-CvsP090630-EmacsW32-1.58.exe yesterday and noted the following peculiarity:

If custom-file is undefined, then EmacsW32 generates a .emacs file at "%USERPROFILE%\Application Data"; however, if I use dired to view "%USERPROFILE%", then:

1. every attempt to visit the "Application Data" directory results in dired visiting %HOME%.
2. every attempt to "find-file" "%USERPROFILE%\Application Data\.emacs" results in %HOME%\.emacs getting opened.
   

Presumably one of the conditions of this problem is that %HOME% is different from "%USERPROFILE%\Application Data."

Is this peculiar behavior a bug or a feature?
--
Thanks,

Nate

[Jason Rumney-4]

Nate Schley wrote:
> Presumably one of the conditions of this problem is that %HOME% is
> different from "%USERPROFILE%\Application Data."

How do you set HOME?

What is reported by:  M-x getenv HOME