Every time I save a document, video, etc. it automatically places it in the Library.
Does MS think I'm so dumb I need this stuff saved in two different locations? Not to mention the space it eats/wastes.
I can I disable this feature?
It really doesn't store it in two places. The library just catalogs, in one place, files stored in, for example Documents and Public Documents. Or you can create you own
library entrys.
Go into a library, at the top it will say "2 locations", or 3 or 4 or whatever. Click that. One will say "Default save location". That's the folder it saves to. It only saves once.
It displays from multiple folders but only saves once.
Thanks for the clarrification on this.
So, is there any way to disable it (videos, pics, etc) from displaying in the Library if I should want to?
You can right-click on a library and press delete, or you can press the "1 location/2 locations" link and remove the folders you don't want displayed.
Library - Remove a Included Folder
Last edited by Brink; 26 Oct 2009 at 23:33. Reason: added link
Spend a little more time with it. It doesn't save in two places.
But it's nice for situations where you have data in more than 1 location, but you can quickly and easily see all of the various types in 1 place. I think it's actually one of the more useful features and I think that people will really dig it once they start using it.
Libraries are the best thing since sliced bread for Windows. It keeps you from being restricted to one folder for pictures and one for documents, etc. You can have as many as you want and as long as you add them to the library, you're one click away from your stuff, no matter where you saved it.
Also, you can create your own libraries...want to keep up with all the pics of your kids? Make a library called KidPics and link every folder that has those pictures to that library. They can even be on external drives.
I think the people who don't like it don't understand what it is doing.
Yes, I agree with most of the above comments and highly recommend before dumping the library feature, people should take some time to understand what it can do for you. I find it extremely useful, for example, to be able to look at the videos I have stored on my internal drive and external hard drive in one library location, instead of having to separately navigate to each video folder on each drive. Imo, libraries are one of the great new features of Win 7.
If you really dislike the library feature -
Simply only include a single folder location in each library and switch off the Library pane in options.
This then operates, IMO, closely enough to a normal "My folders" set-up, of earlier versions as to make no difference.
Of course once you use it like this for a while you may find yourself adding more locations when you find how useful Libraries can be
Hi there
Consider Libraries conceptually as a "Database".
The main advantage is that they can spread over many volumes - you don't have to care where the data is physically stored. For example you might have loads of DVD's, or music "ripped" cd's.
It's actually much easier to store these in libraries.
Four caveats however.
1) Sharing with XP is not available -- this is a bit of a boo boo until you've got rid of all your XP systems.
2) creating libraries on Network drives needs a bit of expertise to get working correctly and easily.
3) Backup and restore using commercial software needs a bit more care.
4) Be careful how you organise extenal media such as USB drives.
It's also a different way of working -- change is often strange when you've been used to working with "Directories and files". Now you need to think of just using and organising "Data" without worrying about where it physically resides.
Strange concept at first but once you get used to it you'll wonder why it took so long to do this.
(With HUGE disks of 1 - several TB [1TB = 1*1000 GB] organising in the old way will get too cumbersome anyway).
Here's a screenshot of showing a SIMPLE way of how useful they are.
On my laptop I want to run a Virtual Machine
so I look in the Library called Virtual_machines - where it shows me that the Virtual Machine Data store is on another machine on the network. I can just open vmware workstation on the laptop without having to search for where the data store actually IS on the network.
(I've deleted the standard libraries - those only confuse everyone -- better to start from scratch and make your own libraries).
Just add folders to it when you want to include more data.
Cheers
jimbo
Last edited by jimbo45; 27 Oct 2009 at 06:55.
