Windows 7: Question about Libraries

The whole library thing is.... neat, I guess... but it is not a very straight-forward feature.

I don't even use the libraries to view anything, but wanted to ask this question to satisfy my curiosity.



Say your Document Library is currently showing many folders from all over your drive... and you drag a file into the library... where does the file actually go, since the library is just a viewer into all the folders you designate?

Also, if anyone has any suggestions on how to make the libraries really useful, please post them here.

Hello Solarnoise,

By default it will save it to your C:\Users\(user-name)\My Documents folder, but you can change the default save to folder to any one of the included folders in the library.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Thanks, Shawn

I'm still not sold on the libraries thing, but at least I'll know where my stuff goes now

You're welcome Solarnoise.

They can be real handy when you want a centralized location to have easy access to files from different folders all over the computer instead.

I'm not sure if I misunderstood something here, but as far as I know, when a folder is 'included' in a library, by default, the location of the folder remains constant, the entry in the library is just a pointer. For example:

You have a folder (my docs) on drive z: and you wish to include it in your 'Documents' library. There are various ways of doing this, but for now, just right click the 'my docs' folder and select 'Include in Library' then select the 'Documents' Library.

Now when you open the 'Documents' Library you will find a new section that looks something like this:

My Docs (#)
z:\
doc1
doc2
doc3

etc...

Any file operations performed make changes to files in the original location.

Hello Quill,

You are correct. Libraries themselves don't store your files or folders. Instead, they point to different folders on your hard disk, or on an external drive attached to your computer.

Any changes made inside the included "my docs" folder in the library will also be changed at the original "Z:\my docs" folder as well. However, if you just open the "Documents" library folder only, then anything saved only into it, and not in any other included folders, then it will only also be saved to the default save folder location.

The Pictures library with the included Sample Pictures ("C:\Users\Public\Picturesfolder\Sample Pictures") folder is a perfect example of this. The default save folder for this one is "C:\Users\(user-name)\Pictures".

This is something of a tangent, but I really appreciate how 7 captures *most* of my games on install and puts them all in the Start\Games\ directory...