User Folders - Change Default Location

How to Change the Default Location of User Folders in Windows 7 and Windows 8​

   Information

This will show you how to change (move) the default location of your account's C:\Users\(user-name) folders to another location of your choice instead in Windows 7 and Windows 8, and still have access to the user folder from the Start Menu (Windows 7 only) location.

   Tip

If you are just wanting to save HDD space, then you might consider this below to be able to access the files from your libraries with the files actually located where you like instead. This way you will not have to worry about any potential issues that come with moving user folder locations. For example, whatever partition you move your user folders to will now be included in a system image in Windows 7 and Windows 8.

• Create a new folder at any location you want.
• Move any files you want into the new folder.
• Include the new folder into a library (Windows 7 or Windows 8) of your choice.
• If you like, you can also set the new folder to be the default save to location (Windows 7 or Windows 8) for the library as well.

   Warning

If you change the default location of your Favorites folder in Windows 8 or 8.1, your Favorites in Internet Explorer will no longer be available until you move your Favorites back to the default "C:\Users\(user-name)" location.

EXAMPLE: User Folders
NOTE: This is at the default C:\Users\(user-name) location.

OPTION ONE

To Change Main User Profile Folder Location

1. For how, see:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/87555-user-profile-change-default-location.html

OR

How to Relocate User Profiles to another Partition or Disk in Windows 8

OPTION TWO

To Change User Folders Location from within User Profile Folder

1. If you a part of a homegroup, then you will need to change the homegroup settings to no longer share the user folder (ex: My Music) that you want to move first by unchecking the folder and clicking on Save Changes. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: This is so the user folder (ex: My Music) will not be shared on the homegroup anymore.

2. In Windows Explorer, navigate to where (ex: D: drive) you want to move the default user folder (ex: My Music) location to.

3. Create a New Folder by right clicking or press and hold on a empty space in the main window there, and click/tap on New and Folder. Name the new folder without spaces (ex: "Music" for My Music) for the user folder that you want to move there. (See screenshots below)
NOTE: The name that you type in for the new folder will be what you see as the user folder name in the Start Menu (shell:UsersFilesFolder) location when finished with all of these steps. It would be best to use the same name as the user folder to avoid confusion.




4. Close this window. (See screenshots above)

5. Press the Windows+R keys to open the Run dialog, type shell:UsersFilesFolder, and press enter.
NOTE: This will open your C:\Users\(user-name) folder.

6. Right click or press and hold on a user folder (ex: My Music, My Documents, My Pictures, etc.....) that you want to move the default location for, and click/tap on Properties. (See screenshot below)

7. Click/tap on the Location tab, and Move button. (See screenshot below)

8. Navigate to the same location as in step 2 and 3 above, then select the renamed new folder (ex: Music), and click/tap on the Select Folder button. (See screenshot below)

9. Click/tap on OK. (See screenshot below)

10. Click/tap on Yes. (See screenshot below)

11. After a few seconds when the location has been changed, the Properties window (screenshot under step 9) will then close.

12. Check back at the C:\Users\(user-name) location to make sure that the old user folder (ex: My Music) that you moved is no longer there. If it is, then make sure that the contents of the folder were moved to the new location, and delete it. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: If you are unable to delete the folder, then restart the computer and try again.

13. You will notice that the folder at the shell:UsersFilesFolder location and the new location (ex: D drive) you moved the user folder to, now has the default user folder (ex: My Music) icon. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: The Start Menu in Windows 7 now opens the user folder from the new location (ex: D: drive) that you moved the user folder to.

14. If you a part of a homegroup, then you can now change the homegroup settings back to share the user folder (ex: My Music) again if you like by checking the folder, and click/tap on Save Changes. (see screenshot below)

   Tip

If you wanted to restore the default location of the user folder, then see:

How to Restore the Default Location of User Folders in Windows 7 and Windows 8

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Customize Default User Profile in Audit Mode
• How to Restore the Default Location of User Folders in Windows 7 and Windows 8
• How to Change the Default "Screenshots" Folder Location in Windows 8
• How to Change the Windows 7 Default User Folder Icons
• How to Pin Your User Files Folder to the Windows 7 Taskbar
• How to Create Your Own Special User Folder
• How to Restore Windows 7 Default User Folder Icons
• How to Add or Remove your User Folder from the Windows 7 Navigation Pane
• How to Allow or Prevent Users to Move their User Folders to a New Location
• How to Change the Default Location of a User Profile in Windows 7 and Vista
• How to Change the Name of "My Documents" without Renaming the Folder
• User Folders - Moving User Folders by Modular Script
• How to Free Up and Recover Hard Drive Space in Windows 7
• How to Change the User Folder Name of a User Profile in Windows 7

 

[whs]

jsetton, I suggest you also delete the hibefile - provided you do not use hibernation. Open a Command Prompt as admin and type or paste:

powercfg.exe -h off

Then press enter. That will free up a few GBs (equivalent to the size of your RAM).

 

[777jam]

I have got this to work fine, but now that I have moved locations, Windows search can no longer search the files. I have rebuilt the index, restored to original settings, confrmed and individuallys selected the folders in the search index options.
Any ideas on how to get windows to be able to find files in these folders? Right now I have switched to using "everything" because I can't get it to work. Thanks.

 

[Brink]

Hello 777jam, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Double check to make sure that you have added the new folder location to be included in the index search results.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/17854-index-locations-add-remove.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[777jam]

Thanks for the response. yes they are all listed there. Each of the folder that are not indexed search just fine, but just slowly. All the folders that are indexed that have been moved can't be searched though. Any other suggestions. I have had the same problem on 3 different computers.

Has anyone done this move and actually had the search function work properly? I tried it on a friends computer as well and it didn't work for him.

thanks for any help

 

[Brink]

777jam,

I was able to move the user folder (ex: My Music), add it to the index, rebuild the index until completed, then be able to search for a file in the new folder from the Start Menu.

 

[Pepito]

Hi,
me again digging out old threads (for me there are new)

As I can see and read in all the forums this way of moving user files is the most popular
but I don't see any mention about the correction of the junctions initiated by the creation of the first account
on installing Seven!
as I said,the folders are moved,no doubt about it,but the original junctions of this folders are not changed in
" C:\Users\Default\NTUSER.DAT"
A Belgium author " Alain Quarré " made an authomatic script to move these folders and even more ,as you can edit the ini file and choose the folders you want to migrate.after the moves done a prompt command will automatiquely rebuild the junctions in the "Ruche" approximatively the heart of the registery
I don't know the name in English.
But the main difference is that this is done for the next new account created and not the actually one
But this is the finest way when you install or reinstall Seven
you just name the first account "Test" for exemple and right after you arrive on seven desk then you run the script with administrator rights
as your test account is still " Like a virgin " you just have to create a new account and delete the test one without regrets
of course you will find the choiced files in the new place as if this was done by Seven installation
this is not my script but if you want I can make a presentation and all explanations as original but in English
as it is in French of course
this script is just amazing and deserve to be known by all
just ring me and I will make a thread

voilà

 

[mickey megabyte]

a tip for the lazy - rather than type or paste shell:UsersFilesFolder into the search-box, you can just right-click on your user name at the top of the start-menu, and click 'Open'.

apologies if this has already been suggested, but i couldn't see it in the original tutorial.

*edit* don't even bother with the right-click, just click the user-name.

 

[ginsu1797]

Thanks for this tutorial. One question though.

I just did a clean install of win7. I'm setting up accounts for me and my wife. Is there a trick to pulling this off with multiple accounts? The first account went just like the tutorial showed. But on the second, I ended up with 2 "my music" folders on my E drive. Is this okay? It didn't seem right so made a folder in E labled me to put my relocated folders into. But when I moved the user folder, it changed the folder labeled me to my music. Also, e was now visible when clicked on my user account name along with my videos etc. Do I have to partion? Thanks for the tutorial BTW.

 

[Brink]

Hello Ginsu, and welcome to Seven Forums.

It seems that there may have been a mistake made somewhere along the line. Restore the user account back to the default location and make sure that the individual user folders (ex: My Music) have the correct default locations as well. Afterwards, try moving again.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/18583-user-folders-restore-default-location.html

 

[ginsu1797]

Hi brink, thanks for replying. I'm probably over thinking this, but what should I see in my E drive after relocating both sets of user files? Would it be 2 my music, my video etc. folders?

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

 

[Brink]

No, it should just be one copy of each and appear just as it did in the C:\Users\(user-name) folder except at E:\Users\(user-name) instead.

If you are seeing 2 of each, then move the user folder back to C: , then use the tutorial below to fix your individual user folders to have only one copy of them again. Next, try moving the C:\Users\(user-name) again as in the tutorial on the first page to see if it will move properly for you this time.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/18583-user-folders-restore-default-location.html

 

[ginsu1797]

First, thanks again for taking the time to reply. Now that I had my morning coffee, let try and explain myself better.

What would the proper way to change the default location of 2 users to the same drive? I wasn't very clear earlier. I had no problems moving the first user as shown in your helpful tutorial. When I start relocating on the second account, there are 2 My Music folders on my E drive. Is this okay?

I tried to make a folder named Me on drive E to put my user folders in to keep them separate. I ended up with 2 my music folders on E. Im not sure if that's okay. What should I do?

Thanks

 

[Brink]

Sorry,

As long as each My Music folder is one for each user, then it's fine. If there are 2 each in the "Me" folder for the same account, then something is wrong and you need to restore the folders back to the default location and try moving them again afterwards.

 

[ginsu1797]

Terrific, I'll try it again tomorrow. The 2 My music folders kinda made me nervous. Ill post back how it went. Thanks!

 

[Brink]

You're welcome. Please keep us posted.

 

[ginsu1797]

It worked!

Just posting back to say it worked. I ended up putting my user folders in a folder in E just so I can keep track of them. I think earlier I goofed up and maybe selected the the folder that contained my new user folders instead of the actual target folder. I'll blame lack of coffee......

I'll have to browse this forum for some more good pointers.

Thanks a bunch Brink!

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome Ginsu. I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted.

 

[Alain Quarre]

Hello Everybody
as you can do to move the user profile for All New User Accounts Created,
you can modify registry to setup new position for all new user.

to do that, you must modify the default user registry hive


this hive is there:
C:\Users\Default\ntuser.dat

1. Load default user registry hive:
   Open administrator command prompt.
   Type: reg load hklm\Default C:\users\default\ntuser.dat
2. Open regedit
3. Go to
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Default\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
   and export them to save place
   That key is used to build new user account
   
4. Modify these value > to change folder position
   
   Personal > My Documents
   My Music > My Music
   My Pictures > My Pictures
   My Video > My Video
   Desktop > Desktop
   {374DE290-123F-4565-9164-39C4925E467B} Downloads​
   
   Favorites > Favorites
   Templates > Templates
   Cache > Temporary Internet Files
   Cookies > Cookies
   History > History
5. These value are not present in original hive.
   You can add :
   {4C5C32FF-BB9D-43B0-B5B4-2D72E54EAAA4} > Saved Games
   {56784854-C6CB-462B-8169-88E350ACB882} > Contacts
   {7D1D3A04-DEBB-4115-95CF-2F29DA2920DA} > Searches
   {BFB9D5E0-C6A9-404C-B2B2-AE6DB6AF4968} > Links
   CD Burning > Burn
6. Uload registry hive
   Open administrator command prompt.
   Type: reg unload hklm\Default
   You must unload the registry hive.

Eg:
To place My Documents Folder in D:\Documents\username\Documents,
modify Personal value with D:\Documents\%username%\Documents

Caution: Pay attention to variable %username%
If you forget it, All new users will have a common My Documents folder.

Modification result:


to restore original values, use your exported key created in point 3, or:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/18583-user-folders-restore-default-location.html

You can also use this script to do all with few clic:
User Folders - Moving User Folders by Modular Script - Windows 7 Forums

Bye

 

[kbz1960]

Just to make sure I did this right, are the music, pictures and video folders suppose to still be under my c:\user?

 

[Brink]

Hello KBZ,

Sorry, but no you shouldn't have the user folders listed anymore at the C:\User\(user-name) location once it has been moved.

Since you do, then it looks like the WARNING under step 9 in OPTION ONE of this tutorial happened to you. You can fix this, be restoring the default locations of the user folders, and moving them again being careful of the warning.