1. Search window opens by default with the current active panel path. You can set your most used folder as a Favorite, assign a Hotkey to it and browse it before hitting Ctrl+F. Or you can hit <Ctrl+F>{enter search string}<Tab><Tab><Tab><Down arrow><Enter>.
1. Check both versions to see where they save their settings (menu Help->About). If it's the same place, you'll most likely lose the settings if you uninstall one of them. Solution: make a backup of your Settings before uninstalling one version and copy them in the same place after that.
Tested XE 715 x86 public portable on Windows 10 x64 English version with Romanian keyboard layout: it works as expected (Alt+` shortcut is saved across sessions).
Note that my "`" symbol is different than your "^" symbol.
If portable XE can't create the settings file in its own folder it means it doesn't have enough access rights to write to that folder, so something definitely wrong happens with your system (very limited user account?). Every current XE version works fine on my win 10.
SOME SECURITY COMPANIES ARE JUST INCOMPETENT! AND GUESS WHAT: THEIR PRODUCTS SUCK! E.g.: https://www.engadget.com/2016/06/29/google-symantec-antivirus-flaws-are-as-bad-as-it-gets/
And why complain that it isn't the result for the setup version instead of simply checking for yourself? Here, I did ...
Try adding this line in the [Form] section of your FreeCommander.ini file: SelectLeftClickOnEmptyCaption=2 More info here: http://forum.freecommander.com/viewtopic.php?p=19828#p19828
Note: this option was added in the Settings GUI in current FC XE donor version. http://i.imgur.com/Pn9609N.png
Folders size display works independent for the 2 panels, so you have to activate it for the right panel also (Alt+F9).
You can also add the "KB" button (Size of folders) to the toolbar and watch its state.