Windows 7: User Folders - Change Default Location

Great news.

Thanks for posting...I have an SSD for my system drive and this worked great to move my main user accounts to a HDD.

I didn't have any luck moving the "Public" or "Guest" folders over, though. I could usually 'see' the location tab, but there was no option to move them, even when logged in as a Sys Admin. Is this not allowed? Call me chicken, but I'd rather not get into registry if I don't have to!

Not sure if this is relevant, but I deleted the user account that I used to initially set up Windows 7 RTM, and created a new sys admin account (set up as a sys admin, not a 'normal' user).

Thanks!

Update: I'm half-way there. I found this thread on this forum about enabling the 'real' Adminstrator account.
Built-in Administrator Account - Enable or Disable

That let me move *most* of the "Public" folders (except for Public Recorded TV and Public Desktop). This could be a problem if Media Center starts recording to my SSD!

Still couldn't move the Guest folders.

Just thought I'd add/share that you can also move the Roaming, Local, and LocalLow folders as well

Start > Run appdata will show you the three folders
Right click select properties
and you'll see there's a location tab just like the other folders mentioned in this guide

great tip, thanks! Any ideas on those public folders that I couldn't move (previous post)?

Hello Sallbee, and welcome to Seven Forums.

I would strongly advise against moving the Public folders. These are shared between all user accounts on the computer. If you move the public folders location, there's a good chance that these will no longer work and be able to be shared by all of the user accounts anymore.

Excellent tutorial and forum compliments .
I used something similar on Vista 64x and now I am going to do it on Seven using your tutorials.

I read around that there is the possibility of moving the entire Users Folder through different approaches.

1.Editing the registry

How to Change User Profile Default Location in Windows 7 | Windows 7 hacker

2. use of wklink, with procedures like this (in the command prompt after booting from installation DVD)

1. MKDIR D:\Users
2. ROBOCOPY X:\Users D:\Users /MIR /E /XJ
3. RMDIR /S /Q C:\Users
4. MKLINK /J C:\Users D:\Users


An alternative approach similar to yours is to create additional folders locations (docs, music, etc that you have in another drive) to the 'Libraries' and make them the default location.

moving the 'Users' folder from c: to another drive



What do you think about these approaches?

I have found in some blogs negative comments about the strategy of changing the location of each data folder (I am definitively using it ) due to the fact that you can only change specific folders such as Documents, Pictures, etc. It doesn't solve the problem of moving hidden application data or other folders to the new location.

Thanks again

Hello Quantico, and welcome to Seven Forums.

I have not tried this particular method, but personally I think changing the location of the entire user folder itself is asking for problems. It seems like to many things could be broken without it being in the default location, or if one mistake was made.

I'll have to do some testing on it to see though.

I am completely agree with you .

Brink,

Let us assume I want to move the “My Documents” folder from “C” to “D”. Then what will the scenario be folder-wise the next time I need, for whatever reason, to reinstall Windows 7 from scratch?

Hello Sinclair, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Since it is from scratch, I would backup the contents of your moved "My Documents" folder. After you reinstall Windows 7, repeat the tutorial to move the folder again, then just copy the contents back into it.

Hope this helps,
Shawn