My documents, pics, music, and vids..

[Chappy]

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.

 

[AGlobalThreatsK]

Its not a "big" deal, but this is seriously the last thing I have to change or "customize" before my windows 7 installation is absolutely perfect. I've been using build 7000 since January and absolutely love it, the only thing I have left to change is the damn menus going into libraries and then into the directories. I think tomorrow I'll submit some feedback about this, can't hurt..

Its just so pointless to have to go through 2 menus to get to my files, whereas in the other windows operating systems I've only had to go through 1 menu to get to my files. Now they change it and won't let us change it back to the way we liked it

 

[mtsnoop]

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

 

[baarod]

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.

 

[AGlobalThreatsK]

Any new ideas to change the menu structure? There has to be other people that want it this way too, how many people have multiple my documents folders? Same goes for my pictures/music/vids..

If only 1 person uses the computer, you only need 1, and you should be able to just use the 1.

I don't want this thread to get off track, I really want to fix this. I will be extremely disappointed if 7 is released like this and there is no way to change it back to the old style. The 1 stupid change would be enough to keep me from upgrading to the newer os.

 

[AGlobalThreatsK]

Any fix yet?

 

[JemEt]

SOLVED only for "Documents" folder

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!

 

[not so gray matter]

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

 

[chev65]

Why not just go to start menu "user name" "my documents" only takes two seconds. If you don't like library's then just set up a workgroup type of network.

 

[JemEt]

I've edited my previous post.

I don't like the system of libraries in Windows 7. But I think it will take me ages to make a change in the registry that is compatible with the entire system.
So I do not know if I will keep on in my intention.

Maybe I'll go on using docks with icons pointing to my personal folders.

 

[stereo]

Can i restore somehow, My Documents folder, back to C ? I moved to D
Thanks