diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index c3ad814075..0019c81c33 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -664,6 +664,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "candle-nn",
  "candle-transformers",
  "cudarc",
+ "directories 6.0.0",
  "dirs 6.0.0",
  "filesys",
  "futures 0.3.29",
@@ -3184,6 +3185,15 @@ dependencies = [
  "dirs-sys 0.4.1",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "directories"
+version = "6.0.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "16f5094c54661b38d03bd7e50df373292118db60b585c08a411c6d840017fe7d"
+dependencies = [
+ "dirs-sys 0.5.0",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "dirs"
 version = "5.0.1"
@@ -7571,7 +7581,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "base16ct",
  "base64 0.22.1",
  "chrono",
- "directories",
+ "directories 5.0.1",
  "flate2",
  "lazy_static",
  "log",
diff --git a/crates/desktop/src-tauri/.taurignore b/crates/desktop/src-tauri/.taurignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ad17b2ca1c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/desktop/src-tauri/.taurignore
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+# Don't restart the dev server on Rust changes
+crates/
+Cargo.toml
+Cargo.lock
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/crates/desktop/src-tauri/Cargo.toml b/crates/desktop/src-tauri/Cargo.toml
index a4596a4d39..662e91e79c 100644
--- a/crates/desktop/src-tauri/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/desktop/src-tauri/Cargo.toml
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ candle-core = { path = "../../vendor/candle/candle-core", features = ["cuda"] }
 candle-nn = { path = "../../vendor/candle/candle-nn", features = ["cuda"] }
 candle-transformers = { path = "../../vendor/candle/candle-transformers", features = ["cuda"] }
 dirs = "6.0.0"
+directories = "6.0.0"
 futures = "0.3"
 hf-hub = "0.3.2"
 image = "0.25.5"
diff --git a/crates/desktop/src-tauri/src/state/app_config.rs b/crates/desktop/src-tauri/src/state/app_config.rs
index c8ac8de251..929579e28b 100644
--- a/crates/desktop/src-tauri/src/state/app_config.rs
+++ b/crates/desktop/src-tauri/src/state/app_config.rs
@@ -15,8 +15,6 @@ const DEFAULT_SD_IMAGE_HEIGHT: usize = 1024;
 const DEFAULT_SD_NUMERIC_DATATYPE: DType = DType::F32;
 const SD_VERSION: StableDiffusionVersion = StableDiffusionVersion::V1_5;
 
-const DEFAULT_DATA_DIR_UNIX : &str = "~/artcraft";
-
 /// A central place to configure app-wide details.
 pub struct AppConfig {
   /// We only support one device type currently, and we can't multiplex 
@@ -78,24 +76,21 @@ impl AppConfig {
     
     let os_platform = OsPlatform::get();
 
-    let default_data_path = match os_platform {
+    let default_data_root = match os_platform {
       OsPlatform::Linux => yaml_configs.linux_default_data_path.as_deref(),
       OsPlatform::MacOs => yaml_configs.mac_default_data_path.as_deref(),
       OsPlatform::Windows => yaml_configs.windows_default_data_path.as_deref(),
     };
     
-    let data_root_path = match default_data_path {
-      Some(default_data_path) => default_data_path.to_string(),
-      None => match os_platform { 
-        OsPlatform::Linux | OsPlatform::MacOs => DEFAULT_DATA_DIR_UNIX.to_string(),
-        OsPlatform::Windows => ".".to_string(),
-      }
+    println!("Possible user-defined data root: {:?}", default_data_root);
+
+    let app_data_root = match default_data_root {
+      None => AppDataRoot::create_default()?,
+      Some(path) => AppDataRoot::create_existing(path)?,
     };
-      
-    println!("Using data root: {}", data_root_path);
+
+    println!("App data root: {:?}", app_data_root.path());
 
-    let app_data_root = AppDataRoot::create_existing(data_root_path)?;
-    
     Ok(Self {
       device,
       dtype: DEFAULT_SD_NUMERIC_DATATYPE,
diff --git a/crates/desktop/src-tauri/src/state/app_dir.rs b/crates/desktop/src-tauri/src/state/app_dir.rs
index 000c59c6a4..3885ae5862 100644
--- a/crates/desktop/src-tauri/src/state/app_dir.rs
+++ b/crates/desktop/src-tauri/src/state/app_dir.rs
@@ -1,10 +1,12 @@
 use crate::ml::model_type::ModelType;
 use crate::state::expanduser::expanduser;
 use crate::state::os_platform::OsPlatform;
+use anyhow::anyhow;
+use directories::UserDirs;
 use std::path::{Path, PathBuf};
 use tempdir::TempDir;
 use tempfile::{Builder, NamedTempFile};
-
+const DEFAULT_DATA_DIR : &str = "artcraft";
 const ASSETS_SUBDIRECTORY : &str = "assets";
 const WEIGHTS_SUBDIRECTORY : &str = "weights";
 
@@ -35,6 +37,11 @@ pub struct TemporaryDir {
 }
 
 impl AppDataRoot {
+  pub fn create_default() -> anyhow::Result<Self> {
+    let directory = get_default_data_dir()?;
+    Self::create_existing(directory)
+  }
+
   pub fn create_existing<P: AsRef<Path>>(dir: P) -> anyhow::Result<Self> {
     let mut dir = dir.as_ref().to_path_buf();
     
@@ -169,3 +176,11 @@ impl TemporaryDir {
     Ok(tempfile)
   }
 }
+
+// eg. /home/bob/artcraft, /Users/bob/artcraft, or C:\Users\Alice\artcraft
+fn get_default_data_dir() -> anyhow::Result<PathBuf> {
+  Ok(UserDirs::new()
+      .ok_or_else(|| anyhow!("could not determine user home directory"))?
+      .home_dir()
+      .join(DEFAULT_DATA_DIR))
+}