Moving Your Personal Data Folders in Windows Vista the Easy Way
If you are running out of space on your primary drive, you've probably considered moving your data to a second drive, but the built-in folders such as Documents are all located inside your user directory by default. Luckily Windows Vista provides a simple way to move these folders without causing any problems.
Before you do this, you should close every single application that you have open, because otherwise you'll have issues moving the files that are in use.
Right-click on the folder you wish to move and choose Properties. On the Location tab, you can either manually type in a new folder path, or you can use the Move button to select a new location to put the folder.
The new folder will be created, and you will be asked if you want to move all your files, which is probably wise.
You can use this for any of the "special" folders in your user directory, such as Downloads, Favorites, or any of the folders that have their own icon.
Note that you can also usually just drag the folders to the new location to move them. I prefer to do it this way just to make sure everything is updated correctly, especially when moving to a separate drive.
Can you post a *working* way to move the "Shared Documents" in XP? TweakUI, which claims to offer such a possibility, doesn't help there - it's just not working.
Or if you can tell me how to stop XP from creating the system folder "My Music" under "Shared Documents" every once and while, that would also of help. I've somehow simulated the rest with junction points.
Thank you.
What I found with this method (haven't tried other methods yet, if exist) is that after a while, Vista will re-create those folders with their default folder locations. So now I have two of each of the desktop, music, video etc. More annoying, so now whenever I have new shortcuts, those shortcuts will be put in the default "Desktop" location and will not show up on my desktop!
How can I reduce the size of the Window for this Gadget?
when i right cleck on properties the box that comes up does not have locations on it!!!!!!!!! so what do i do?//
lost most control of my fingers so pleaqe bear with me, it hurts like hell 2 type.
yeah when i change my documents (or other personal folder) 2 a new location. the documents dir in the origional location turns red but when u click it the os cant find the moved document dir. i thought i saw sonetnning about changing a registry item but cant find it,..
help please
thank u
My name is Karl, and I use windows vista.
My problem is that I don't like how there are so many default sub-folders within the 'C:\Users\Karl' folder.
I don't want windows to automatically download or save MS Office documents into a 'Karl\Documents' folder. In my 'Karl' folder I like to just set my files out how I like them. Similarly, I don't always want to save picture files into the 'Karl/Pictures' folder, if the picture is related to something else. I might want to save the picture into 'C:\Users\Karl\Research for University Work' for example.
From the default save locations I routinely have to go 'back' one level to my 'Karl' folder, then place the files where I want them, and it's very annoying. How can I change all of the default save locations to the 'C:\Users\Karl' folder? Is it possible?
And I am an old granny and not hip to all the computer lingo, but I've found many helpful tips in your articles, so many thanks.
*I* woud like to get RID of some of those many folders..I do not like Vista putting stuff where it wants to..I want to put EVERYTHING where I want it. Also, can you move folder up or down in that tree??
And I still wish I had the "Up Folder" button….I think I learned for you I can go "up" by hitting Backspace, but I still miss it.
Let's assume you move Music and Pictures to an external disk that way. The day the external disk crashes, you cannot reset the original Default by going to your crashed folders because everything will be geyed. In that case, go to Music and Pictures in the right pane of START, right click > Properties > Location > restore Default. This way you will get your default folders back. But , of course, your files on the external disk will be lost. But at least you can continue operating normally.
but if I never ever put anything in the (for instance) Music and Pictures folder, then why would that matter.
I like to have all my folders under one huge umbrella, and that way I can back thst thing up on my external harddrive with one click
I guess we cannot actually get rid of all those folders no matter what..it sounds like even if you did, they could come back at any time
I sill wonder if we can move the folders up or down in the "tree" (I don't know what else to call it)
I would at least like to put the folders I actually use at the top of the list
Useful tips - however I've tried to do this (using a new network attached drive, so I can get better data security - I hope). Problem is that I lost the connection to the network drive and now my document, picture, music links etc don't work.
When I right click them and select properties it only gives a single "general" tab, with no data (so can't change location or restore to default). Can't find out how to re-set up the link. Any advice - thanks in advance.
hi chax,
**When I right click them and select properties it only gives a single "general" tab, with no data (so can't change location or restore to default). Can't find out how to re-set up the link. **
have the same problem, did you find a solution yet!?
Walker - my solution was to do a factory image restore on the PC and reinstall everything! Not really ideal (I was having other issues, so it seemed the best thing to do).
Still waiting to see if anyone has more useful solution.
chax - true, not really ideal. messed around with some of the other personal folder too, so i really would like to know how to fix this…thanks for your replay though.