Folder paths

mlong212 · 29 Jun 2010

[updated]
I noticed that several programs are having problems linking to files in the My pictures folder.
Adobe Photoshop Album (needed inorder to clean out and move on to new software) and a program called 7stacks (an icon link problem) are trying to link to the My pictures folder. They seem to be coded to look for a folder called "My Pictures" However, "C:\Users\username\My Pictures" takes you to the right place in win explorer, until you look at the file path after you hit enter and now it shows as "C:\Users\username\Pictures". Windows keeps deleting the "My " for the actual path. Why is it doing this, and can it be prevented?

When I browse to it the folder shows "My Pictures" in windows explorer. But the path says \Pictures and not \My Pictures.

how can a folder name be different from its path? I attached a picture to illustrate.
I noticed that the library also says Pictures not My Pictures.

Thanks,
Matt[IMG]file:///G:/Temp/moz-screenshot.png[/IMG]

whs · 29 Jun 2010

The address is C\dadada\Pictures - My Pictures is just a name. You could rename it to ABC and the address would still be the same. That should not have anything to do with your perceived problem - which you should describe in more detail.

Bill2 · 29 Jun 2010

That is by design.

In XP "My Documents" folder was located in the user's profile directory, as Documents and Settings\<user name>\My Documents. "My Documents" was one of the many "Special folders". It was not an absolute path- a user could change the physical location of "My Documents" by right-clicking on the "My Documents" icon, selecting Properties, and entering a new folder location (path) in the Target tab.

Vista renamed "My Documents" as, "Documents". The "My" was also done away with from "My Music", "My Pictures" and "My Videos". These folders were now located directly under the user's profile directory (C:\Users\<user name>).

In win7, The "Documents", "Pictures", "Music" and "Videos" folders show up in Windows Explorer with a "My" prefix but are actually still stored in the file system without the prefix.