Windows 7 - Removing unwanted folders from the user folder

In the start menu there's a user folder, and within this folder a bunch of subfolders: My music, my videos, my documents, my downloads, etc.

I want to remove these folders and replace them with my own folders that I'll actually use but every time I do I get an error message telling me that the location... is no longer available.

Is there any way to remove these folders or otherwise deal this this or do I just have to deal with having a bunch of unnecessary folders making a mess of my user folder?

must be a problem for you, at me it works with no errors...

try to do the exact same thing (delete) in Safe Mode

Straz, welcome to the Forums!

The problem is, some programmers use these standard folders hard-coded in their software. I used to do this as well - I would think "I hate these stupid names, let me delete them"! I would go ahead, delete them and then next Windows update does something to the Media player and voila - My Music is back where it was.

As a result, I simply ignore these folders, don't use them at all. I turn them off in my start menu and I store my actual files on a whole other hard drive - not the one where Windows is. Therefore on another hard drive - but it could be another partition or even the same old C:\, although I would recommend separating the OS and your personal files in case you'd need a re-install - you could create any storage scheme you want with whatever names you want.

So the bottom line is - it's possible to delete them, but it's very probable they will re-appear, or even give you an error - for example if a program wants to access them, but does not have enough privileges to create them. Thus the simplest solution is to ignore them.

As unifex suggests, turning them off in Start Menu properties gets rid of them. If you are contemplating relocating your user folders to another partition (or wherever), these links may be helpful:

User Folders - Change Default Location

Or, if you're experiencing issues because you used a different method to relocate them, you can restore them and retry using the previous link:

User Folders - Restore Default Location

James