My documents, pics, music, and vids..

I think Grim may be on a track there with the reg change, I just can't think of a value or string name to get this done for ya.
I'll see what I can find, I think it needs an expandable string key but I don't know exactly how to name this one or a value to connect it.

mtsnoop said:

Hello,

I'm new to Win7 and didn't use Vista How can I set the personal folder to a different directory? With XP it was kind of simple, but I just can't find this setting in Win7...

Thanks
mtsnoop

You don't set the personal folder to a different directory. That's too much work and of questionable value. It's not supported by Microsoft either. What simple operation does give you all the value of doing that for almost no work at all is just to move the folders. To do this, open Start, type %userprofile%, and press Enter. There's other ways to open that folder but none are so concise. Now just MOVE, not copy but MOVE the whichever special folders inside to wherever you want -- even another non-removable drive. You can leave any folders you don't care about right where they are in their default locations. Since Windows is keeping track of those folders for other reasons, when you move them, it takes care of the housekeeping for you. If you already have folders containing videos, music, etc somewhere, move the folders Windows 7 created ANYWAY. Then move the content of your Videos, Music, etc. folders into them. That's much easier than trying to "bless" your own folders and it also takes care of any permissions issues you might have.

EDIT:
I'm terribly sorry, and for that I apologize, but I found that this trick would compromise the functionality of Windows Media Player because it needs the libraries to function. This change to the registry is valid only for "My Documents" folder which is not involved in WMP.
If anyone has used this tutorial I would suggest him to restore the registry keys previously saved.

I found a way to point to "C:\Users\your username\Documents" when you click the "Documents" link in your Start Menu in Windows 7. (Same solution for "Music", "Pictures" and "Videos" folders).

Warning: this tutorial doesn't disable libraries in Windows 7 so you'll keep on seeing them in Navigation Panel. I suggest to add all the above folders to your Navigation Panel favorities.

I personally tested this registry hack, but, to be completely sure, consider exporting the registry keys we're going to change to restore them in case of problems.

Documents
1. Open regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{7b0db17d-9cd2-4a93-9733-46cc89022e7c}.

2. Delete "ParentFolder", "Stream", "StreamResource" and "StreamResourceType".

Now be careful to not add quotes when changing registry values.

3. Change "Name" to "Documents".

4. Change "RelativePath" to "My Documents" or "Documents", depending on how is named your document folder in "C:\Users\your username".

5. Change "ParsingName" to "::{59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}\{FDD39AD0-238F-46AF-ADB4-6C85480369C7}".

6. Add a "DWORD" value named "Attributes" and set it to 1.

7. Add a "DWORD" value named "Roamable" and set it to 1.

Done!

Music
1. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{2112AB0A-C86A-4ffe-A368-0DE96E47012E}.

2. As point 2 above.

3. Change "Name" to "Music".

4. Change "RelativePath" to "My Music" or "Music", depending on how is named your music folder in "C:\Users\your username".

5. Change "ParsingName" to "::{59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}\{4BD8D571-6D19-48D3-BE97-422220080E43}".

6. No need to add a "DWORD". It should already exist. Add it if not as point 6 above.

7. No need to add a "DWORD". It should already exist. Add it if not as point 7 above.

Done!

Videos
1. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{491E922F-5643-4af4-A7EB-4E7A138D8174}.

2. As point 2 above.

3. Change "Name" to "Videos".

4. Change "RelativePath" to "My Videos" or "Videos", depending on how is named your videos folder in "C:\Users\your username".

5. Change "ParsingName" to "::{59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}\{18989B1D-99B5-455B-841C-AB7C74E4DDFC}".

6. No need to add a "DWORD". It should already exist. Add it if not as point 6 above.

7. No need to add a "DWORD". It should already exist. Add it if not as point 7 above.

Done!

Pictures
1. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{A990AE9F-A03B-4e80-94BC-9912D7504104}.

2. As point 2 above.

3. Change "Name" to "Pictures".

4. Change "RelativePath" to "My Pictures" or "Pictures", depending on how is named your pictures folder in "C:\Users\your username".

5. Change "ParsingName" to "::{59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}\{33E28130-4E1E-4676-835A-98395C3BC3BB}".

6. Add a "DWORD" value named "Attributes" and set it to 1.

7. Add a "DWORD" value named "Roamable" and set it to 1.

Done!

Now, logoff and logon (or kill and restart "explorer.exe" in task manager) to make the changes take effect.

Enjoy! :)

If this is confirmed by anyone you should add it to the tutorials section.