Windows 7: Purpose of 'Library?'

What is the purpose of the 'Library' in Windows 7? Is this similar to XP, where the main user/owner can split the files and only allow limited to another user, or is it for some other reason?

Libraries are a system of accessing files from all over your system. You add a folder to the Libraries (or create a new Library) and it retains it's original location, yet is displayed and accessible in Libraries. You can also save files to the Library and it will place it in the original folder (yet, again, display in Libraries) A 'central repository', if you will. This link should help:

Inside Windows 7:Introducing Libraries

And, if you want further information:

what are windows 7 libraries - Google Search

James

Thank you James. I just read through the MSN link and now it makes perfect sense. Although I'm not one to store very many files all over the pc, I have lost some of them upon occasion and now this makes sense.

Libraries make it easy to gather up the same type of media that are spanned across multiple drives.
Vista was supposed to have this in it and it was supposed to be called Virtual Folders, but never materialized.
I have 14 drives in my machine and Libraries makes it easy to organize and find my media files.

i'm surprised you don't name your drives/partitions, zepher, especially when you've got that many - although i suppose with libraries, you don't need to so much.



i'm not saying you're wrong, just saying...

They are named.
The only one not named is the "K" drive which isn't in the machine anymore.
I name them for what they are, Western Digital is WD and then I put the size after it, so WD_2TB is my Western Digital 2TB drive.

I have another WD 2TB sitting here on my desk that I am going to put in the machine either today or tomorrow and am debating on just removing 1 250GB drive or remove all 3 250GB drives.
At least 1 has to come out since I have no more SATA connectors on the Mobo.

Great organizational skills Zepher. I'm going to have to make use of this, now that I know what it's for. Hate to stumble upon it's conception at a later date, realizing everything is spread out, and then try to organize.
Glad now that I asked this question.

Ya, it makes it much easier.
Let's say that you have a bunch of movies across 3 drives, on D, E, and F.
I create a Library called Movies
On each drive there is a folder called "Movies" and the movie files are in there.
Then you go to each drive and click on the "Movies" folder and then select "Include in Library" in the top menu and select the "Movies" Library.
Do this on each folder you want to have in that Library.

Now when you click on the Movie Library in the left pane of your explorer folder, all your movies are in there, and you can Arrange them by folder, tag, type, date modified, or name.
Arrange by Folder shows the drive then any subfolders you have on that drive and then the files on that drive
Arrange By Name will show all files in one list.

Libraries is my favorite thing in Windows 7