Does anyone actually LIKE Windows 7?

Britton30 said:

Well, all "computer buffs" I'm acquainted with love w7. If someone doesn't like it, I don't really care, XP is still a viable alternative, or a Mac machine.

For libraries I point each one to one folder, Pictures to My Pictures, etc.

So you don't mind me wanting to use XP unstead of Wonderful Windows 7?

At the risk of sounding thick, where do you store the folders the Library(ies) point to?
Actually in my Libraries set-up I select (say) Pictures and this has a sub-library, My Pictures; and that has another sub library or as many as I want. Not that I always know where the actual folder is - as you may have guessed. But you have a folder (elsewhere on the computer!) headed My Pictures?
In XP, as you all know, you have a page of files headed, or entitled, My Documents under which a variety of files are listed in alphabetical order (with filing cabinet style folder icons). My Documents is accessed from the first page.

There, I have asked for advice!

Maguscreed said:

I don't think anyone has up to this point directly told you not to use xp, there is just the reality that all support for it IS going to end soon. It won't be long after that, that software will stop supporting it as well. You picked a good time right now you have time to get used to win 7 before you're basically forced to upgrade just because of how the market works.

If all you ever do is look at cute kitten pictures and the occasional youtube videos it doesn't really matter. If you actually USE the computer though you're just going to have to accept this progression like most the people here have done in the last 3 years or so. No operating system is perfect some are just better than others.

I've had to much coffee this morning so I'm just going to stop there.

No, true. No-one said "Don't use XP" as such, but there was a lot of flak flying around, and a lot of derision at the thought that I - and others - wanted to stay with XP. Read the thread carefully and you get a fair amount of dissent from various posters. (Is that the name for people who post posts?) .
Yes, I know about the imminent demise of XP support, which is why I am all the more mystified about XP Mode. Microsoft seem to holding out a helping hand on one side, and kicking XP lovers in the teeth on the other.

Cute kittens and YouTube? No, not me.

Have you read this post yet dabber? Anak posted it earlier in the thread.

A lot of great info in this thread, Help yourself, there's plenty more

Slartybart said:

Libraires 101 by Robbin Young

Microsoft author: Robbin Young said:

Do you ever look at your PC and marvel that it contains your entire life? Photos. Videos. Music files and documents. It's all right there, and it's all very convenient—that is, until you find yourself scouring your hard drive, other PCs on your network, and your external hard drive for a single file. And that's where the libraries in Windows 7 come in handy.

1. So what exactly is a library anyway?: Libraries are a new way to organize all your files in Windows 7 to make it easier to find what you're looking for. You can access your libraries by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, typing Libraries in the search box, and then selecting it from the list. Here, you'll see the four default libraries that come in Windows 7: Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos, as well as Podcasts, a new library my Zune created.
   
   "Wait a minute," I hear you say, "I had folders for documents, music, pictures, and videos before. So what's the difference?" Great question. Here's how it works.
2. File folders vs. libraries: A file folder is exactly what it sounds like: part of a filing system where you organize documents, photos, and so on. File folders are great—but they're just like a file cabinet because they contain files from just one place, like the hard drive on your PC.
   
   A library, on the other hand, is a dynamic way to group together similar files without having to move or reorganize the actual file folders. When you work with a library, you're essentially creating shortcuts to different file locations. And it doesn't even matter where that file location is; it can be on your hard drive, another PC in your homegroup, or even on an external drive.
3. See all your photos at once: Let's use the Pictures library as an example. I don't know about you, but managing years' worth of photos has always been a hassle for me. In the past, I'd have all my photos on my PC, but periodically copy them to an external hard drive for safety. As I took new photos, it got pretty confusing trying to organize them. Inevitably, I'd end up copying one folder over another and losing files—or creating two different folders with the same pictures.
   
   With the Pictures library, I can see all my photos at once, no matter where they are. What's cool about that is I can still move photos from my hard drive to my external drive—and still view, find, and work with them as if they were all in the same folder.
4. Add file locations to your Pictures library: Here's how I set up my Pictures library to include the photos on my external hard drive.
   
   First, I click the 2 locations link under Pictures library up towards the top of the screen. Then, in the Pictures Library Locations dialog box, I click Add, navigate to Computer, and click My Book (E:). On the next screen, I select Photo archives and click Include Folder. Voilà! Now, every time I open my Pictures library, it'll show me images from both my PC and my external hard drive.
5. Sort your files and find them faster: Here's how it looks when I've added photos from my external hard drive into the Pictures library on my PC. Look at the left column—see the new Photo archives folder? That's actually still on my external hard drive. But when I sort the pictures in my library—say by tag, date, or folder—all the photos are sorted together. So no matter where I've got pictures from 2005 I can search through them as though they are all in one spot.
6. Delete a location: Let's say you no longer want to include a particular location from your library. That's just as easy. Click the locations link under Pictures library near the top of the screen. In the Pictures Library Locations dialog box, highlight the location you no longer want to include, and then click Remove.
   
   
   
   Don't worry—you haven't deleted the actual file folder. All its contents still exist. That's because libraries don't actually store items. Instead, they simply monitor the folders that you've selected. Of course, if you delete the folder itself, then it won't show up in a library.
   
   And don't worry about accidentally deleting one of the default libraries either. You can easily restore it by right-clicking Libraries and then clicking Restore default libraries.
7. Create your own libraries: There's another cool thing about libraries: You can create your own. That way you can organize all kinds of stuff into one spot. To create one, just click New library. In this case, I'm making it easy to find photos, docs, and video clips about Whidbey Island by collecting folders from across my PC and external hard drive. It's as simple as pointing and clicking, and will save me tons of time if I ever get around to writing that book.
   
   So go ahead—create your own libraries and get your files organized. You'll be glad you did.

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About the author:Robbin Young has written about Windows since before there was a Windows—her first PC was an AST Premium 286 running DOS 3.0. If you know what that is, you too may have nostalgic feelings when you see C:\. As a tech writer, Robbin has the obligatory tech writer's cat. She, her husband, and the cat live in Seattle.

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By the way, XP mode was a helping hand 3 years ago to assist users who were adopting Windows 7 when it originally came out.

XP is like a classic car, it had it's heyday and has become outdated and just can't keep up in modern times, it will become a novelty for the enthusiasts.

Just like everything else, at some point you have to accept that certain things need to be updated or replaced, classic cars are fun hobbies but they can't stay a reliable daily option without lots of money and constant tinkering, even then the safety is not up to modern standards.

Britton30 said:

...For libraries I point each one to one folder, Pictures to My Pictures, etc. I use the Start menu to navigate to Pictures, Documents, Videos, and Music. Libraries put "so many" off because it's something new, I just see no need to use them but I can see they could be useful if one has similar folders scattered about, say, on a network drive.

That's what I did with my Libraries since I also feel they weren't an advantage to me. Another possible use for them is when sharing folders with other users over a network but wanting to keep one of more folder to stash files in that shouldn't be shared (I'm the only user on my network). A Library would allow you to see all the files in one place but still keep them segregated.

Libraries essentially allow one to view the contents of all "subfolders" within a "folder". I would so rarely need to do that, it's easier for me to open each folder (putting each one in a separate reduced sized window if necessary) one at a time than to have to do a Save As everytime I wanted to save something somewhere other than the "primary" folder of a library.

derekimo said:

Have you read this post yet dabber? Anak posted it earlier in the thread.

A lot of great info in this thread, Help yourself, there's plenty more

Thanks, derekimo. No I missed that - and in view of the number of posts on the thread I may have missed others. But I will print Robbin's article and study it at my leisure.