The path to the database location in feedreader.ini does not support Windows environment variables.
[misc] dbdirectory=D:\documents and Settings\USER\work [This works]
BUT
[misc] dbdirectory=%appdata%\work [This FAILS]
Support of environment variables is a must for me as I synchronise my data accross multiple computers and they do not have the exact same folder structure, so I use those environment variables. Most programs on Windows do support environment variables nowadays.