Library feature....I hate it...how to disable?

[cavalier]

Every time I save a document, video, etc. it automatically places it in the Library.

Does MS think I'm so dumb I need this stuff saved in two different locations? Not to mention the space it eats/wastes.

I can I disable this feature?

 

[pbcopter]

It really doesn't store it in two places. The library just catalogs, in one place, files stored in, for example Documents and Public Documents. Or you can create you own
library entrys.

 

[frogs]

Go into a library, at the top it will say "2 locations", or 3 or 4 or whatever. Click that. One will say "Default save location". That's the folder it saves to. It only saves once.

It displays from multiple folders but only saves once.

 

[cavalier]

Thanks for the clarrification on this.

So, is there any way to disable it (videos, pics, etc) from displaying in the Library if I should want to?

 

[frogs]

You can right-click on a library and press delete, or you can press the "1 location/2 locations" link and remove the folders you don't want displayed.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/586-library-remove-included-folder.html

 

[pparks1]

Does MS think I'm so dumb I need this stuff saved in two different locations? Not to mention the space it eats/wastes.

Spend a little more time with it. It doesn't save in two places.

But it's nice for situations where you have data in more than 1 location, but you can quickly and easily see all of the various types in 1 place. I think it's actually one of the more useful features and I think that people will really dig it once they start using it.

 

[MacGyvr]

Libraries are the best thing since sliced bread for Windows. It keeps you from being restricted to one folder for pictures and one for documents, etc. You can have as many as you want and as long as you add them to the library, you're one click away from your stuff, no matter where you saved it.

Also, you can create your own libraries...want to keep up with all the pics of your kids? Make a library called KidPics and link every folder that has those pictures to that library. They can even be on external drives.

I think the people who don't like it don't understand what it is doing.

 

[harpua]

Yes, I agree with most of the above comments and highly recommend before dumping the library feature, people should take some time to understand what it can do for you. I find it extremely useful, for example, to be able to look at the videos I have stored on my internal drive and external hard drive in one library location, instead of having to separately navigate to each video folder on each drive. Imo, libraries are one of the great new features of Win 7.

 

[Barman58]

If you really dislike the library feature -

Simply only include a single folder location in each library and switch off the Library pane in options.

This then operates, IMO, closely enough to a normal "My folders" set-up, of earlier versions as to make no difference.

Of course once you use it like this for a while you may find yourself adding more locations when you find how useful Libraries can be

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
Consider Libraries conceptually as a "Database".

The main advantage is that they can spread over many volumes - you don't have to care where the data is physically stored. For example you might have loads of DVD's, or music "ripped" cd's.

It's actually much easier to store these in libraries.

Four caveats however.

1) Sharing with XP is not available -- this is a bit of a boo boo until you've got rid of all your XP systems.

2) creating libraries on Network drives needs a bit of expertise to get working correctly and easily.

3) Backup and restore using commercial software needs a bit more care.

4) Be careful how you organise extenal media such as USB drives.

It's also a different way of working -- change is often strange when you've been used to working with "Directories and files". Now you need to think of just using and organising "Data" without worrying about where it physically resides.

Strange concept at first but once you get used to it you'll wonder why it took so long to do this.

(With HUGE disks of 1 - several TB [1TB = 1*1000 GB] organising in the old way will get too cumbersome anyway).

Here's a screenshot of showing a SIMPLE way of how useful they are.

On my laptop I want to run a Virtual Machine

so I look in the Library called Virtual_machines - where it shows me that the Virtual Machine Data store is on another machine on the network. I can just open vmware workstation on the laptop without having to search for where the data store actually IS on the network.

(I've deleted the standard libraries - those only confuse everyone -- better to start from scratch and make your own libraries).

Just add folders to it when you want to include more data.



Cheers
jimbo

 

[rerice]

Their is a reg tweak which I am using, that will eliminate the Library
function from Windows Explorer.

I got it from Technology News, Internet, Tips-n-Tricks, Tutorials, Software Reviews, Themes, Skins, Wallpapers

I tried to find a direct link but could not. It does work, I hate the
Library function also.


If you get a direct link, please post it.

 

[T34]

I am not surprised to see people complaining about this feature. It is one of the best things about 7, but it is different than previous Windows OS's so of course there will be resistance. Being an Ubuntu user, I have always wondered why Windows never implemented this form of organization, as it is highly intuitive.

For those who are determined to disable this feature, I will offer this bit of advice; OS architecture is rapidly changing and you will have to adapt. Within 10 years the "OS" environment will no longer exist, and will be replaced with the browser-based operative environment. Windows is already moving in this direction (this is apparent with Silverlight and Live Mesh). As the technology advances we will see a rise in web-driven and semantic driven programs and environments.

This means that semantic database infrastructure will become the new standard for OS design. The most noticeable implementation of this will be in Google's new OS which is currently in development. With subsequent Windows OS environments we will see them moving away from the traditional architecture in favor of smaller web-driven environments.

in short, get use to the libraries feature because it is only the beginning of a whole new OS experience.

 

[1Bowtie]

+1 T34 at first i was a little overwhelemed with librarys, but as i learned more about them and i played with them, i'm starting to like the function. It just takes getting use to how they work.

Smitty

 

[satchmo]

I was making my own "libraries" with Vista before I even knew about Windows 7.

I was making a folder with various shortcuts to other folders so that I can have all the related files in one place. But now Windows 7 does it for me.

I love it.

Change can be hard to get used to sometimes, but don't dismiss it until you give it a chance.

My son likes to dismiss a new song when the song barely starts playing, but usually he ends up liking the son after listening to it.

Give it a try.

 

[eVaderum]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, im somewhat new to the forums, but I thought I'd throw my 2 cents in about libraries.

Admittedly, i hated the libraries feature for a while. My biggest annoyance was that the start menu links pointed to libraries instead of actual folders since i keep all of my data within their corresponding folders, and because when veiwing through the library system, it would not display independent folder views.

For example, setting the library to display large icons sorted by name, would cause any folder/subfolder you navigate to to be displayed that way, compared to direct folders which retain independent view styles.

When i finally started seeing the light as it we're, was when i finally set "Arrange By" in the context menu to something other than folder. Having the library arranged by folder mimics the actual folder structure and provides minimal features over the actual folders, especially in my case where i only have 1 folder that i need to display in each library

For example, i now have my documents library to arrange by type, which will display a list of file types, and no longer seperates folder locations. Selecting a file type will display files of that type from all locations included in the library.

As far as documents being in two places, they are in only one place. Creating a file in, or moving a file onto a library window will put the file in the folder set as the library's default folder.

If you are completely adament about disabling libraries, there is an article on another site with a zip file containing 3 .reg files that modify the registry. 1 to remove libraries from the navigation pane in explorer. 1 to disable libraries completely. and 1 to restore the default settings.

I used this at one point but quickly restored the original settings for two major reasons. For one, it has the side effect of removing the Documents/Music/Pictures/Videos link from the start menu even if theyre set to show. It also has the side effect of making windows media player unable to manage the folders it includes in its media library

Edit: after having a problem setting my music library to display arranged by artist, where all my files we're listed as unspecified. After a quick search, i found out that the files needed to be indexed for it to work. http://www.sevenforums.com/music-pictures-video/30039-music-library-arrange.html


1. The default Arrange by:folder mimics the actual folder structures
2. Arrange by: Type combines folders included in the library

 

[msimon1960]

Libraries

Libraries... what a miserable implementation... didn't like it in Vista and still don't like it in Win7.

I want all MY stuff in one folder with subfolders according to MY tastes and utilization. Libraries, as implemented, arbitrarily forced users into a particular organization of data. Yes, I know you can override it (somewhat) but every new folder has to be manually configured. JHC, as if I don't have enough to do.

Even Ubuntu uses 'Home' folders where I can put whatever I like there in any organization I wish. Ubuntu goes even further in that it puts all the user's application settings in their HOME folder. Easy to backup.

The flaw in the Ubuntu implementation is that HOME can't be stored on a SAMBA server -- the most common Linux / NAS server solution for homes and small offices.

As for libraries -- I've always just created links in 'My Documents' if I needed to store something remotely (Ubuntu users would know this as symbolic links).

Per usual -- Microsoft imposes a new schema for data management for advanced users that confuses the daylights out of average users -- it is not intuitive. 'Not Intuitive' is the very definition of bad design. For all it's 'cleverness' it is a pain to override and work around. There should be an option to turn off this library functionality for those of us who prefer a simpler, elegant solution.

Where does Microsoft get these ideas? I find it hard to believe that a focus group of average users would say -- 'Wow, what we really need is a library to force us to organize everything in terms of documents, music, and videos!!!'

I like a lot of Win7 but dumped it after playing around with library data management model.

Suggestion for WIN7 SP1 --

1. an option to turn off libraries in favour of the simpler 'My Documents' folder model.
2. an option to have user application settings stored as hidden files in the 'My Documents' folder for ease of transport/backup.

 

[msimon1960]

Libraries are the best thing since sliced bread for Windows. It keeps you from being restricted to one folder for pictures and one for documents, etc. You can have as many as you want and as long as you add them to the library, you're one click away from your stuff, no matter where you saved it.

Also, you can create your own libraries...want to keep up with all the pics of your kids? Make a library called KidPics and link every folder that has those pictures to that library. They can even be on external drives.

I think the people who don't like it don't understand what it is doing.

Uh...hate to burst your bubble but you could create folder links in 'My Documents' or your desktop to do the same thing. Libraries are little more sophisticated implemetation of the concept dating back to Win95.

 

[msimon1960]

I am not surprised to see people complaining about this feature. It is one of the best things about 7, but it is different than previous Windows OS's so of course there will be resistance. Being an Ubuntu user, I have always wondered why Windows never implemented this form of organization, as it is highly intuitive.

For those who are determined to disable this feature, I will offer this bit of advice; OS architecture is rapidly changing and you will have to adapt. Within 10 years the "OS" environment will no longer exist, and will be replaced with the browser-based operative environment. Windows is already moving in this direction (this is apparent with Silverlight and Live Mesh). As the technology advances we will see a rise in web-driven and semantic driven programs and environments.

This means that semantic database infrastructure will become the new standard for OS design. The most noticeable implementation of this will be in Google's new OS which is currently in development. With subsequent Windows OS environments we will see them moving away from the traditional architecture in favor of smaller web-driven environments.

in short, get use to the libraries feature because it is only the beginning of a whole new OS experience.

This was the subject of considerable conjecture in the Great Netscape / Internet Explorer War of '96. Didn't go anywhere then and won't go too far now. It flies in the face of basic human nature to 'own' their data. The notion that all data will be stored on ISP servers is likely 10-20 years away in my opinion. System security, reliability, and privacy issues are significant obstacles to overcome.

 

[Brink]

Hello,

I would recommend to give libraries a try for a bit to see how you may like them or not. However, if you want to remove Libraries, then the tutorials below can help you with this.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/35627-libraries-folder-add-remove-navigation-pane.html

and

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/938-libraries-desktop-icon-add-remove.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[msimon1960]

Compromise?...

Apparently some people like the library and the new data storage structure being used in Win7/Vista. Personally, when I saw it in Vista I didn't like it -- seeing it retained in Win7 has been a disappointment.

I played around quite a bit with the new schema in Win7 yesterday (always willing to give sometime a second look) but was unable to configure it reasonably. A real shame since a lot of the other attributes of Win7 look like a real improvement over XP.

I want the old 'My Documents' folder schema back. Would it be too much to ask to have the user container ('Matthew' in my case) enabled with the right click option to change the location to another drive/location? Seems like such an easy fix.

Matthew.