My Documents - Why are these Folders Here?

Hello, I coming from a XP environment to a Windows 7 one. While I'm not new to Windows, adjusting from XP to 7 and understanding its nuances is both challenging and exciting.

I do have a question about what 7 puts in the "My Documents" folder. It appears that at least Outlook keeps its PST files in the Documents folder. Is it valid for other applications to auto-create documents there as well?

You see, I have a Lenovo Thinkpad W510 which came with Corel DVD MovieFactory and Ulead Burn software. My Documents did not contain a folder for these until after I burned a CD with some files. Now there appears one folder for each app. The folders are empty, with no files within.

It doesn't really bother me that apps put folders and documents in the My Documents if this is something valid and acceptable (although I can anticipate this would make the My Documents rather cluttered after awhile). I suppose I just would like someone to validate that this is what is supposed to be happening (in general, not necessarily with those two pieces of software).

Thanks for your time. I'm glad I found this forum as it seems to be the place to be to learn about Win 7.

Have a pleasant evening.

Jim

Thanks MacGyvr and Barman58 for your replies. The difference may be between Outlook 2007 and 2010. I know on XP Outlook 2007 does indeed put PST files in the ...\local... directory path. Maybe its not as much a Windows 7 difference as it is a difference between the 2 Outlook versions?

When I did a clean install of Outlook 2010 on the new Win 7 machine I did not change any of the defaults when prompted by the installer. It seems others I talked to did not change the defaults either and their PST is also located in My Documents --> Outlook folder.

It does make sense that the PST files go under the My Documents umbrella because unless the average user backs up their entire system they wouldn't get the PST files backed up as they might expect.

Thanks again, and have a great week!

Jim

Barman58 said:

Outlook 2010 does create a folder, (Outlook Files), in the My documents tree, which IMO does make sense as it keeps the user data (PST Files) where they would be most likely to be backed up,

Perhaps because I did an upgrade? but my pst file is still where all the others have defaulted to.... C:\Users\myname\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook

I just checked my Documents/My Documents folder and do not have a folder called Outlook Files. Yes I have my folder view set to show all hidden files/folders.

Anyway I'm glad you pointed that out. Never know when this info becomes handy.

Thanks.

Thanks Barman, I was just looking for that as I knew I'd read that somewhere myself - that the pst file location changed. Anyway you have the official Microsoft site, and I have this....

New to Outlook 2010, Personal Folders Files (*.pst) are in the Outlook Files folder in your My Documents folder.

Outlook 2010 Backup and File Locations

Office 2010 will use the PST files from O2K7 if there is an upgrade. If you add additional accounts, such as IMAP, then O2K10 will create the new PST in the My Documents folder structure. Backups become more complicated with the PST in different locations so beware.

Yeah I was just going to say thats exactly where my Outlook files are - My Documents.
It was a new install on Windows 7. I never put it there.

But all my imported .pst files are in AppData

But I have quite a few programs that do put Folders in My Documents.

Also, as mentioned earlier, and oneextraid just mentioned agin, if you do an upgrade Outlook will use the pst files from Outlook 2007’s location.

Okay, thanks everyone. That's exactly what I did - clean Windows 7 install, first time install of MS Office (2010) on new laptop. So at least we now know the original PST goes in the User documents folder.

Agreed, never say never

Thanks again!

Jim