Windows 7 - Changing Excel 2010 default save folder location

Hi folks, got a question re: Excel 2010, running on Windows 7 Pro 32-bit (it's not the machine in my stats).

I looked up tutorials to change the default save folder location for MS Office, and pretty much all of them reference MS Word 2010. Like for example the one in this forum, MS Office Word : Set Default Save Location -- which works fine when I try it, no problem with Word 2010. However, Excel 2010 is being a **** and refuses to following spec.

Consider:
When I click on File -> Options, then navigate to the "Save" tab, it displays a screen similar to the equivalent one in Word... except that the "Browse" button to change the folders is missing.



No big deal, plus the default file location is already pointing to my user folder: that's fine. However, when I go to save or save-as, this is what pops up:



Yea-- no. Why is Excel showing libraries? I don't want to use libraries. I don't want to see libraries. I've used the registry hack from this forum to remove libraries from showing up in the left pane of Explorer.

How do I get Excel to use my documents folder as the default?

After changing the location in the Excel Options --> Save tab... did you reboot?

No, I didn't change the folder; it was already pointing to my documents folder. Haven't rebooted, will try that in a sec - gotta wait for a download to finish.

Edit:
Nope, still opens Libraries first. Tried changing the folder to C:\; huh, that worked, didn't have to reboot. Restarted Excel, yep, save-as goes to C:\. Changed it to another folder, also worked.

Changed it to my documents folder - blam, back to the Library. Changed it to another folder, it goes to that folder. Oookay...

Well, I can accept that - I don't mind pointing Excel elsewhere (my original problem is solved). This however still leaves the fact that if you point it to your user document folder, Excel will automatically jump to the library.

One small point - in your illustration it states "Save as" Excel 97-2003 (*.xls).

Maybe that was intentional, but Excel 2010 is usually the first in the list, Excel Workbook (*.xlsx).

Yes, that was intentionally changed previously - many of the people I liaise with have older versions of MS Office.

If it is any help to you, I don't use libraries either.

I have created a data partition and sub-divided that with separate folders for personal data such as MS Office docs, digital images, music and video files.

The folders are then configured with sub-folders as shown in the screenshot below.



I have a separate sub-folder for each Office application whose default Save filepath points to their respective sub-folder within H:\Personal Files Backup\Microsoft Office Files\

This way, all my personal stuff is kept well away from the Windows partition and makes backing up so much easier and quicker.

One solution to that problem is to move the Users folder. One way to move the Users folder is

User Folders - Change Default Location

Another, slightly more involved way.

User Profile - Change Default Location

Some random suggestions that might work:

How to Change the Default Save Location for Word 2010 - I think it may work for Excel also.

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint - Products - Office.com

If all else fails, here are a couple of Work-Arounds:

This is not exactly the same thing, because you're not saving THE file/folder to a different location, but you can use these Keyboard shortcuts in Windows Explorer to take you to your last 'saved location'

Clicking Alt + Left Arrow takes you back to your last location

Clicking Alt + Right Arrow –after you’ve gone back to your last location, it takes you back to where you originally were.

I see this thread is now marked as solved, but I do not see where the OP states it is fixed... WHY???

Sorry for the confusion, but in my second post I mentioned that I am able to get Excel to use a different folder. That is an acceptable solution for me hence I marked my thread solved.

However it doesn't work (still goes to Libraries) if I point it at my user documents folder. As long as you point it elsewhere, Excel will obey you.