Nope, your wallet will work from any internet connected computer that can run the bitcoin client.  Everything you need to access and use your coins is stored in a file called wallet.dat.

I installed bitcoin and got .02 coins from the faucet site but I cant find this wallet.dat file
I installed it on windows 7 in c\bitcoin (default directory) anyone know why this might be

I'm relatively new to Bitcoin as well, and was rather surprised when i found out all my money is stored in an unencrypted, unprotected file hidden deep in the windows file structure (for an average user).

Now that more people are joining this and buying millions in $ on exchanges, maybe it should be made more clear for an average user where their money physically is and how to transport it to a new computer. Also, the file should be encrypted and password-protected, this is such an obvious security design flaw for a currency that's crypto/hacker based -.-

Dude, i was talking about a normal average user here. And you point me to a multi-page long wiki article, really?

With beautiful instructions such as this:


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Go to Start -> Run (or press WinKey+R) and run this:

explorer %APPDATA%\BitCoin

BitCoin's data folder will open. For most users, this is the following locations:

C:\Documents and Settings\YourUserName\Application data\BitCoin (XP)

C:\Users\YourUserName\Appdata\Roaming\BitCoin (Vista and 7)

"AppData" and "Application data" are hidden by default.

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This stuff should be in the client. "Copy Wallet to Location" etc.. I mean come on...

You guys need to work on usability a lot if you want this to succeed.

Time is running out fast, though. This little project of yours gained a lot of popularity in the last weeks, and big economic trouble is ahead. Perfect times for a new gold-standard if it's easy to use.