Libraries....aargh!

Does anyone know how to COMPLETELY disable the Library feature in Win 7.

Please don't try to convince me that it is useful, I have my own method for sorting stuff and I have never misplaced a file.

I would just like to disable completely. I don't want Windows doing anything with saving extra folders to keep track of this feature.

It's sad when iTunes nearly does a better job at sorting stuff. I have never been asked if I would like to add folders to this library, yet it seems to just assume I want it to keep track of things for me. Video files where there should be music, documents where there should be video

I have to keep going in and deleting individual folders from certain categories, I have tried setting to default, it doesn't work.


I have been messing around with this for a while now and found many threads where everyone just chimes in and tries to convince the person to use it. Or ways to remove certain panes.


I would like to COMPLETELY disable this feature. I thought it would be in "turn Windows features on or off" but it is not.

Any ideas? I hate this feature with a passion!

See this.

How to Disable “Libraries” Feature in Windows 7? - Tweaking with Vishal

Bill2 said:

See this.

How to Disable “Libraries” Feature in Windows 7? - Tweaking with Vishal

Thank you. Nothing like this came up on this forum. Unless I missed something, it seemed I could only disable panes, or hide it.

Appreciate it.

When i ever do a clean install of windows 7 one of the first thing i do is go to this site How To Disable and Remove Libraries from Windows 7 Explorer to remove libraries.

devildog93 said:

Does anyone know how to COMPLETELY disable the Library feature in Win 7.

You can't. The Library feature is explorer (the shell) itself.

Go ahead try it... Winkey+R -> EXPLORER.EXE -> ok and you're looking at the libraries folder.

You can hide it from the navigation pane but you cannot disable it...

Both of the above mentioned .reg files attempt to delete the same keys but I needed to take ownership and control of HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5} before it would go. And with the Vishal download this one didn't work till I wrote it over: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\NewStartPanel]
"{031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5}"=-

CommonTater: After this reg change, running explorer.exe opens My Documents, not Libraries.

Hi there
OK this isn't the answer to your post but actually the LIBRARY feature is one of W7's (IMO) strong points.

Unless you are used to Linux or Unix type OS'es it will take a bit of getting used to - but read some help documents and try and understand the feature.

What Libraries are trying to do is enable you to store your DATA (MUSIC, DOCUMENTS etc etc) anywhere on your computer system without having to care about which physical drive they are located on.

For example say you have some music on drive "D" and it's now full. Well with Libraries you can just add say DRIVE E.

Your Music application just needs to access the Music Library and the song will be found on whether its drive D or E.

The only downside (and it's not really a downside) to Libraries is that you need to adjust your Backup stategy (YOU DO TAKE BACKUP'S DON'T YOU).

Just arrange your Backup to backup your LIBRARIES as DATA. Unfortunately a lot of current backup programs still only recognize "Volumes" and "Classical Directories" on them so you need to be a bit more careful in designing your backup since if you BACKUP volume D on Mondays and Volume E on tuesdays then your Library (Volume D and E) won't be backed up properly.

I have my libraries spread across 3 volumes which I always backup together.

Incidentally Libraries can also be used across NETWORK drives -- incredibly useful.

So I'd suggest again -- don't give up on libraries yet -- it's a bit hard to get used to them at first but after a while you'll wonder however you did without them especially if you have a lot of Disk drives (including extenal USB ones).

Cheers
jimbo

I agree, read up on them and what they allow/disallow. I still don't see it necessary to permanently disable them -- one doesn't have to use them. This is quite a nice and easy read:
http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/ff_libraries.asp

Confirming Brink's fears - one instance of bad side effect of the radical registry changes linked by Bill2 and si8mon above: Trouble changing Desktop Background picture folder location. To get that functionality back I had to reinstate:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\{031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{A990AE9F-A03B-4e80-94BC-9912D7504104} (This one is the Pictures Library)