How to get rid of the library?

[kahill1918]

I don't want the library there on my desktop. I don't want it there anywhere. I like all my folders laid out in plain sight on the desktop, not shelved on some library shelf.

Thanks.

 

[Brink]

Hello Kahill, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Libraries let you access and arrange items from one or more folders quickly without moving them from their original location. Libraries themselves don't store your files or folders. Instead, they point to different locations on a hard disk or external drive attached to your computer. This gives you easy access to a category of files no matter where they are stored. For instance, if you have music files on your hard disk and on an external drive, you can access all of your music files from within the "Music" library.

If you are still set on removing them, then this will help show you how to with an easy option to restore them later if you should decide to.

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

and

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

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[karlsnooks]

kahill,
Before you jump off the deep end, please:
WIN + F1 key combo | type library

Read the info there.

WIN is the key with the Microsoft flag on top.

Libraries are one of the great advancement over XP days.

 

[MacGyvr]

Agreed with all the others above. You don't like the libraries because they are new and you don't understand them. Learn about them before you start ripping things out of the OS. That is why we have new versions. If you want to stay in the XP days, use XP.

 

[kahill1918]

Many thanks for your advice. I'll try to understand the libraries better. Problem though is that "My Documents" shows up at the Library, and I also have "Documents" on the dekstop. I thought my "Documents" folders and files would show up at "My Documents," but they don't. Further "My Documents" icon is missing. It was for this reason I created the "Documents" folder.

Also when I do a search, sometimes it says the file is in the library, but I cannot find the library. It does not show up on the desktop or in the Start Menu, etc. The only way I know something is in the library is when the Search bar says so.

 

[karlsnooks]

kahill,
Brink has written an excellent tutorial on restoring those missing Libraries.

Search the Tutorial index on the word Library and I'm sure you will find it.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

I've been around a while and I have a complete grasp of Libraries and I still hate the concept.

 

[karlsnooks]

That's just because they won't let you into libraries without shoes on.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

That's just because they won't let you into libraries without shoes on.

:roflmao:
​

 

[brianmit]

I too hate this ridiculous Libraries concept. And no! I am not old fashioned, and I understand the concept.
I am actually quite grown up. I certainly don't need to be continually babied by Windows ideas of "My" documents, "My" this or that. That's for children who have had their imagination smashed out of them at school. Will we soon get "My very bestest friends", "My toy box", "My favourite lollipop flavours?"
I am an independent journalist and tutor. And like I'm sure any computer user, I am quite capable of creating sub-folders in my Documents folders for sub-divisions of my data; and can create shortcuts for them and organise them elsewhere if I want.
If Microsoft wants to baby other people along; at least give the rest of us grownups the option not to be babied with something we can easily do ourselves.
The problem is that surplus capital has to be re-absorbed and companies need to keep selling operating systems, mobile phones and lawn mowers. It is also common practice for big corporations to 'ration' new developments over a few years of new versions in order to keep selling them with dubious "improvements."
It is also general practice for IT departments to not go over to a new OS for a year or two.
Personally, I believe Windows 2000 Pro (NT5) the best, most flexible and configurable OS and I am quite tempted to go back to it.

 

[BarnabasSackett]

Many thanks for your advice. I'll try to understand the libraries better. Problem though is that "My Documents" shows up at the Library, and I also have "Documents" on the dekstop. I thought my "Documents" folders and files would show up at "My Documents," but they don't. Further "My Documents" icon is missing. It was for this reason I created the "Documents" folder.

That's not a big problem. If you open your "User" icon and right click on "My Documents," click the "Location" tab and tell it where you put your documents/data. Mine points to a directory called "data" which has been around on my computer since Windows 3.1. You can even rename the folder to "Files and Stuff," also in the navigation pane, you can rename your libraries to whatever you want.

As problems go, this is pretty much a non-starter. If you don't like the libraries, just ignore them.

 

[BarnabasSackett]

That is why we have new versions. If you want to stay in the XP days, use XP.

New cars have CD players so does that mean if I don't want a CD player that I should stick with my 1988 BMW with its cassette player?

Not everyone moves to a new OS because they want the gingerbread that comes with it. I have no use for Aero so should I stay with XP? I went to 7 because it is supposed to be faster and more stable.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

When I first got Win 7, I tried to use Libraries and just didn't find them at all useful. I don't keep program icons on my desktop, seeing them as a waste of screen real estate (I use my desktop for a calendar and a plethora of virtual post-it-notes, and as a temporary parking place for files and folders so they are in my face until I finish working with them, so they immediately went south. The program icons I use frequently are on the taskbar; the rest are easily accessed from the Start Menu. If I wanted to get into the Documents, Music, or Pictures folders when I was using XP, it was far more convenient to get there from the shortcuts in the Start Menu. Since those shortcuts in Win 7 are actually libraries, I just deleted all the default folders in each libraries except for the first one and now use the shortcuts the same way I did in XP. I'm not knocking libraries--I can see them being advantageous for many people-- but they just weren't of any benefit to me.

 

[Brink]

I'm not sure if everyone actually understands the whole point of libraries or not.

A library will let you be able to have all your say "documents", or whatever, folders that are saved at different locations (local or network) to be included (referenced/indexed) in the library so you can access all files in all these different folder locations in the one central library location instead with all the files still saved at the different folder locations. This way you do not have to go to each different folder to change, delete, open, etc... a file. You can do it all from within the library instead.

If you have certain files of the same type saved in different folders across your local and/or network(s), then having them included in a library can make it much easier to keep track of all these files in the one library location versus each different folder location.

That's all.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I'm not sure if everyone actually understands the whole point of libraries or not.

A library will let you be able to have all your say "documents", or whatever, folders that are saved at different locations (local or network) to be included (referenced/indexed) in the library so you can access all files in all these different folder locations in the one central library location instead with all the files still saved at the different folder locations. This way you do not have to go to each different folder to change, delete, open, etc... a file. You can do it all from within the library instead.

If you have certain files of the same type saved in different folders across your local and/or network(s), then having them included in a library can make it much easier to keep track of all these files in the one library location versus each different folder location.

That's all.

I got it but still didn't like it. That's all.

 

[Brink]

To each their own.

 

[edwar]

I've been around a while and I have a complete grasp of Libraries and I still hate the concept.

I'm with you on that. I know exactly where my files are. They are not spread out all over the place and if by chance one or 2 files get saved to a different folder then where they are supposed to be I MOVE them to the correct folder. I don't need a library of that as they are all in the same place.