Windows 7: Documents AND My documents folders; Can I eliminate one?

schodes · 01 Jul 2012

I have a Documents folder and a subfolder called My documents. This seems to me to be duplication. However when I delete a file from the My documents folder, it also deletes the deletes the file from the Documents folder. Is there a way to delete the My documents folder and have all the files located in just the Documents folder?

solarmystic · 01 Jul 2012

Hello and welcome to the forums schodes!

As of Windows 7, the "Documents", "Pictures", "Music" and "Videos" folders appear displayed in Windows Explorer with a "My" prefix but are actually still stored in the file system without the prefix (as in Windows Vista).

So you don't have to do anything, no extra file is being duplicated, no space is wasted.

Hope that clarifies the situation!

Sir George · 01 Jul 2012

Quote: Originally Posted by schodes

I have a Documents folder and a subfolder called My documents. This seems to me to be duplication. However when I delete a file from the My documents folder, it also deletes the deletes the file from the Documents folder. Is there a way to delete the My documents folder and have all the files located in just the Documents folder?

solarmystic is correct about the fact no space is being wasted.

This may provide a little bit of "the why" factor;

Vista and Windows 7 have a Junction “C:\Documents and Settings\” which points to “C:\users” to add legacy support for old applications now that the user data has been moved to a new location. If you move a file foo.txt into “C:\Documents and Settings\PherricOxide\” it will really move it into “C:\users\PherricOxide\”. This allows older applications to read, write, and modify files inside “Documents and Settings” without ever knowing it doesn’t exist anymore.

HTH

Windows 7: Documents AND My documents folders; Can I eliminate one?

Documents AND My documents folders; Can I eliminate one? problems?