I use 32bit Vista, and I'm concerned with keeping the /users/[myname] folder as tidy as possible, since it's the folder I use most as a crossroads to my various documents/music documents. I'm sure other users will have similar preferences.

Upon loading, during the splash screen, GIMP creates the following two folders in the c:/users/[myname] folder:

.gegl-0.0
.gimp-2.6

And, upon using the application further, other files and folders can be found in the same directory, such as:

.thumbnails (a folder)
.recently-used.xbel (a file)

I've tried changing all of this in GIMP's "preferences/folders" options, but mostly, the options here give me the ability only to add new folders, or to relocate piecemeal the folders contained within the .gimp-2.6 folder. Furthermore, that folder has to remain where it is for these changes to endure, since it contains the preferences which tell GIMP to use the alternative paths. If I delete .gimp-2.6, it just recreates the folder again when I next boot GIMP.

I'm sure there are others. I'm given to believe the .thumbnails folder may be dropped there by GTK, and that it's a little hard to tell it to do otherwise.

I'm also given to believe that a -g argument from the command line would allow me to specify another folder for GIMP too look at for brush preferences, etc., but I haven't found this to prevent GIMP from recreating the folders in /users/[myname].

I imagine that, on a Linux machine, this wouldn't be as much of a problem, since many files are stored in the ~/ directory, and since the files would be automatically hidden, since they have the . prefix. But, since the files are not automatically hidden, because Windows doesn't hide files that way, the tendency of GIMP to clutter the personal folder with files is somewhat inconvenient. Even if they were automatically hidden, I can envisage people preferring that they could specify a more discreet folder, into which GIMP dropped all of its necessary operational files.

May I suggest, as an enhancement, that an option in the PREFERENCES/FOLDERS dialogue might allow the user to specify such a discreet folder, so as to prevent GIMP from creating more busy work for the fastidious user?