Setting Windows $HOME and or %APPDATA% paths in FreecivPortable.ini

- hi everyone from a long time user, first time poster and shout out to @dagardner for PAL packaging Freeciv

I'm trying to figure out $HOME and %APPDATA% variables for Freeciv while switching between Win 7 and 10 laptops and believe the issue is related to the .ini settings for that particular app hence this post in this subforum. My apologies if mistaken.

*Problem:*
settings and save files created by Freeciv and stored in %APPDATA% are flushed inbetween app usage.
*Current workaround:*
manually copying settings and save files from %APPDATA% before closing the app.
*Desired outcome:*
point the path away from %APPDATA% to a folder within the portable apps folder instead.

As per Freecivs FAQ, 3.7, it creates a configuration file and a /saves subfolder in $HOME which defaults to %APPDATA% at C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\.freeciv\. (see 3.7 in https://github.com/freeciv/freeciv/blob/master/doc/FAQ)

Usually when I close Freeciv this folder is flushed. Sometimes it isn't.
Other times the content is copied to FreecivPortable\Data\settings\.freeciv before flushing.

Rarely (hate to be vague here, sorry), upon re-opening Freeciv, is the content of ....Data\settings\.freeciv copied back to ...AppData\Roaming\.freeciv.
Mostly (sorry again) it isn't, which caused a few hours of confusion during troubleshooting today.

My Windows 7/10 understanding is that $HOME is globally set for all installed apps. If that's correct how do a single app bypass that?

Glancing at FreecivPortable\App\AppInfo\Launcher\FreecivPortable.ini and the commented ;HOME=%PAL:DataDir%\settings line makes me assume it can be solved from there:

[Launch]
ProgramExecutable=Freeciv\freeciv-gtk3.exe
WorkingDirectory=%PAL:AppDir%\Freeciv
DirectoryMoveOK=yes
SupportsUNC=yes

[Environment]
LANG=%PAL:LanguageCustom%
;HOME=%PAL:DataDir%\settings

[FilesMove]
settings\stderr.txt=%PAL:AppDir%\Freeciv
settings\.freeciv-client-rc-2.5=%APPDATA%

[DirectoriesMove]
settings\.freeciv=%APPDATA%\.freeciv

I've scoured the well-documented Freeciv files (thanks to excellent portable Geany find in files search) but didn't find any noob friendly how-to steps that suggests editing one of its config files.

There's a command line option to avoid %APPDATA% (see 3.9 in the FAQ, link above) but some of my junior warmates will probably not be able to use cmd and it's much easier just to share a copy of my 'custom' Freeciv portable folder that works as intended.