Point XP system at my Windows 7 "My Documents"

Following this great tutorial, I can move my Windows 7 Documents folder to another disk partition (e.g. F:\DarkStar\My Documents): User Folders - Change Default Location

Now, I have a dual-boot PC, with Windows XP. I would like to point my XP system at the same folder. That way, i can access my documents and files from either system.

In XP, can I just change the "Target folder location" in my Documents > Properties dialogue window to "F:\DarkStar\My Documents"?

Is that safe or will that overwrite / delete the existing content of the destination? Or is there another method to follow?

I used to keep "MY Documents" on a separate partition and then point XP to it after a re-install. I never lost anything, the worst that happened is I got prompts that the folder(s) already exists. Stuff like "My Music" etc, but it didn't delete anything. I never tried to point two different OS at the same folder(s) though. It might mess up your permissions in one OS. If you are using the same user name and password in both OS it may be OK though. If it does mess things up just do the "take ownership" thing to get back in.

OK, thank you.

Has anyone tried this with Windows 7 and XP? Any pitfalls?

This is an interesting idea, so I decided to test it, even take it a bit further.

I changed the XP My Documents location to point a network folder, my user folder Kari in a Win7 machine. Everything works, when I now save something to XP's My Documents, it's saved over the network to Win7 machines user folder.

Both machines can access the folders at the same time, there are non what so ever problems.

Go for it!

Kari

Woo hoo - I'm glad to help

Thank you, that's what I wanted to know (except for the network bit). Were your existing XP documents and files moved? Or just new ones saved there?

So, just set up my Windows 7 "My Documents" where I want it (on F:\DarkStar\My Documents) then change the target in XP.

Windows 7 is very new to me, so I'm not brave enough for much experimentation yet. Although from what I've seen here, someone will come along to sort out most issues (as long as I can still access the Interwebz).

I share my data between vista and win7. The data is in a seperate data partition. I moved the data there from vista and just included the folders into the win7 libraries. I have encountered occasional permission problems, but they are easy to fix in Properties > Secutity tab.

How do you avoid problems with permissions? I assume that NO files are actually shared between the two OSes? Or are you using a domain account that is identical on both machines?

I only made the test today just before I had to go away. Now back home, have tested, various scenarious. I'm using a domain account with identical credentials on both XP and Seven, moved XP My Documents to Seven my user folder.

Seems to be no problems. XP streams video thinking it's from My documents, although it comes from Seven. Created an Excel sheet in XP, saved it on My documents, opened and edited in Seven. No permission problems.

Why haven't I thought this before? Pointing Documents to one folder in one machine, from all machines? For our home network this is ideal.

@DarkStar: I moved the My Documents, so it moved everything. Not only new docs.

Why haven't I thought this before? Pointing Documents to one folder in one machine, from all machines? For our home network this is ideal.

Click to expand...

Yeah, it's like a server and you never have to sync the files.

whs said:

Why haven't I thought this before? Pointing Documents to one folder in one machine, from all machines? For our home network this is ideal.

Click to expand...

Yeah, it's like a server and you never have to sync the files.

Click to expand...

This simple method goes beyond server.

From my personal computers, the laptop mentioned in my specs is my main rig. It follows me wherever I go. At home, I still want to keep my media files on HTPC which acts as a server, but using this trick, moving personal folders on Seven desktop and XP notebook to this laptop I can now work with any of my rigs, no need to remember to move files to laptop so they are with me when I'm not home.

Very effective and easy synchronization. And a good example how the simplest solutions are often so simple I don't even think about them before somebody points them out.