"Application Data" and "Program Files" were chosen for Windows 95 as a safety valve for programs that were upgraded to work with long files but might still be making assumptions such as filenames won't have a space. It would cause them to fail early so those bugs could be fixed.
But it also made the 250 character path limit much easier to reach. When the NT unification happened with 2000/XP the shorter AppData was used with "Application Data" remaining as a junction point to the roaming profile for compatibility.
But it also made the 250 character path limit much easier to reach. When the NT unification happened with 2000/XP the shorter AppData was used with "Application Data" remaining as a junction point to the roaming profile for compatibility.