Windows 7 - wtb hack for favorites/libraries in explorer

so i realllllllly hate seeing this chunk of garbage over my drive tree every time i open explorer, as i won't ever use the things and want them gone.

so, anyone have any tips on killing them _without_ turning off the 'navigation pane'?

Hello Kenabi, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Sorry, but you cannot remove them without turning off the Navigation Pane as well, but you can unexpand them to save space though by clicking on the arrow to the left of them.



You might change your mind though about Libraries once you get use to them. Libraries allow you to place a collection of folder shortcuts in a group that make accessing those folders and their contents easier. For example, if you have music files stored in different folders at different locations (ex: drives), then you can include these folders in a library to have them all available from one location instead.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Very true, i've got countless music/movies/documents & pics on my external HDD that would never fit on my lappy drive (40GB internal as opposed to my 250GB external with only 30GB free LOL). So far, Windows 7 has the best [book] keeping system i've used.

meh. i can't wait till someone figures out a fix -_-

and on the topic of; trust me, if i want something that bad, i'll drop a shortcut directly to it on my toolbar and just click that =P it's all just more visual garbage that doesn't need to be setup the way it is, and it takes up space in an otherwise nifty thing. wish i could revert everything back to the lovely win2k days and still keep the awesome that is Windows 7's speed and what not

I actually hated libraries at first, but once you get used to its way of thinking, you find them a very valuable asset.

I really Hated libraries also as I got used to backing up data by VOLUMES. However once you get used to it it's fine. (More like OS-X and Linux -- you just backup say directory /Music with all it's subdirectories -- doesn't matter where the data physically resides. The file system handles it all).

My only problem is that as this is fairly new is it robust enough to rely on this completely. I trust the Linux ext3 file system as it's been working for "Donkeys Years" but this approach from Microsoft is quite new -- and I'm not yet 100% certain it won't end in tears.

As another note it seems Windows 7 is copying a lot of ideas from OS-X (to get the mac fanboys back on board maybe).

Anyway there IS a learning curve in using Libraries on windows but if you think in Data terms rather than Disk terms then you'll get used to it (and probably like it as well).

Added -- If you really want an old app for displaying files in the traditional (volume based manner) why not install Norton Commander -- I think this still works -- it did on my VISTA PE disk so in theory it should in Windows 7. I'm actually trying my best to "Unlearn" these old ways of doing things. Whether we like it or not Windows is a GUI based system so we should take advantages of using the best features of a GUI based OS.




Cheers
jimbo

see, the problem here, is that i'm 100% minimalist. this clutter i can't use (mostly because i'm not lazy enough to bother, and i actually _prefer_ digging around, as i don't like dumbing down my interaction with my computer. and that's what would happen here..) just aggravates me with it's constant visual presence.

as far as i'm concerned, this is how explorer should look; <see attached>

and it'd be great if we could arrange things to suit our own views of things, but i'd settle for just being able to regedit the things i have no use for out of the picture

I don't see a use for libraries, simply because I store things through folders in a library like manner already, and have been for ages.

there's little to no point for me, due to using paths to save files when i need to, C:/maindownloadfoler/sub/sub/etcfilename.ext in the save dialog, no matter the program, what it is i'm saving.

you can't exactly type in \Libraries\zomg\ and have it take you there. and you can't get to that folder via the normal path route either, as they tend to be obnoxiously locked down.

Actually you can remove most of the clutter

just remove the standard libraries (my music etc etc).
create your own library (libraries)
set windows explorer to group by libraries (attachment 1)

Now for search -- it's also easy
using the example above I want to search all tracks in the library with JAAP say in the name (attachment 2).

Once you get used to it it's fine and you don't have to fill the screen with clutter --I like it now much more thna the old Windows explorer on XP Pro.

Cheers
jimbo