Upgraded to Windows 10 from Win7

And now can't find %appdata%/StardewValley/Saves

I could find it in Win7... but don't recall where it was located and on which drive
I don't install games to my OS drive.

So where exactly

 

It doesn't matter where you install games. %APPDATA% will be inside your user profile (the folder which holds your Desktop, Start Menu, My Documents, etc.)

 

Found it. Had to go into File Explorer Options and select the option to show hidden files, folders, or drives
And in Windows 10 Pro 64 bit. It's path is \Users\********\AppData\Roaming\StardewValley\Saves
At least on my system it is.
Why not put the data within the game directory instead of in a hidden directory?

 

Several reasons:

1. If you can't afford to backup your entire hard drive, everything that can't just be reinstalled is in \Users\********\
2. It means that your user only needs permission to modify files inside \Users\********\
3. A single install of an application (eg. a game) can be shared between multiple user accounts
4. Your save files will survive an uninstall and reinstall
5. Anything inside "Roaming" will be shared between machines if you're using domain-based login with roaming profiles. (where your account is stored on a central server and synced to the machine when you sit down and login)

The reason the folder is hidden is that AppData is for files which, under normal circumstances, users can rely purely on the applications which created them to manage them. (ie. Users shouldn't normally need to touch them, so they'd just be clutter and possibly accidentally harmed by novice users)

That's why some games don't put their saves in AppData. (It depends on how likely the developer feels it is for users to want to copy their save files around manually)