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

 

[Brink]

Hello Churin,

I'm not sure.

 

[chal00d]

Hi Brink,

Great stepthrough, many thanks

After successfully moving the My documents folders to a larger partition, I have one issue remaining however...

My old user folder on the C: drive now contains separate Music, Pictures and Videos folders to the ones that I moved, which are also appearing.

When I try to access these (presumably empty) folders I'm getting "C:Users\Phil\Pictures is not accessible. Access is denied."

I don't need these, is there any problem with just deleting them?

 

[Brink]

Hello Phil, and welcome to Seven Forums.

What does is say under the "Location" tab as the path in these folders' Properties page?

If you delete them, leave them in the Recycle Bin for now if it will let you and test to make sure the ones you moved still work first. If they do then it's safe to permanently delete them.

 

[whs]

And if you ever move them back from where they are now (assuming they still have a location tab) the system will automatically recreate the folders.

 

[chal00d]

Hi Brink (and whs),

Good question. There is no location tab for these files.

Under general tab its;
Type: file folder
location: C:\users\Phil
Size: 0 bytes
on disc: 0 bytes
Contains: 0 files, 0 folders

No problem deleting, and the relocated "My Docs" folders are still working fine. looks like the issue solved, great!

As a side note that might be of interest - when logging on today there was no issue with access to these empty folders.

Appreciate the help!

 

[Brink]

That's great news Chal00d. I'm happy to hear that it seemed to sort itself out for you.

 

[geob]

Thanks immensely for this tutorial. Worked perfectly. A couple of observations:

I knew that iTunes was picky about the location and moving of its files but there were no issues using this procedure to move iTunes (as subfolder in My Music) to a different partition. Brilliant!

A small command line tool for creating all the ...\User\username\folders at one swell foop. Assuming G: is drive letter for new partition and command window opened at C:\Users\{username}:

C:\Users\{username}>for /d %a in (*) do md g:\%a

George

 

[Brink]

You're welcome George.

Thank you for the tip. It's great for making copies of the user folders there only, but it will make moving them to that location easier with the new folders created using this.

 

[1GRN1]

What is the shell command to change the location of public folders?

 

[whs]

What is the shell command to change the location of public folders?

If nothing else, you can move them from the location tab in properties - that is if you mean like public music, public pictures, etc.

 

[1GRN1]

What is the shell command to change the location of public folders?

If nothing else, you can move them from the location tab in properties - that is if you mean like public music, public pictures, etc.

Yes, but there's no "MOVE" button there, and it will be sweeter to have the OS do the work of moving the files.

 

[whs]

What is the shell command to change the location of public folders?

If nothing else, you can move them from the location tab in properties - that is if you mean like public music, public pictures, etc.

Yes, but there's no "MOVE" button there, and it will be sweeter to have the OS do the work of moving the files.

You really like creature comforts. But there is not much to move - unless you fattened those folders.

 

[wallyinnc]

What is the shell command to change the location of public folders?

If nothing else, you can move them from the location tab in properties - that is if you mean like public music, public pictures, etc.

Yes, but there's no "MOVE" button there, and it will be sweeter to have the OS do the work of moving the files.

Yes there is:

 

[willferguson]

Move button

There is no option to "move" in a LAN Server environment. My machines that are members of a domain do not have this option. (from memory it is grayed out)

 

[VulcanSoulPatch]

Brink, thanks so much for the very helpful tutorial. I did it and it worked like a charm. I now don't see the folders in the C:\Users\{username} folder, as they are all on the partition.

I did have one hitch, though. I used geob's method of creating all the folders at once that he posted here, but when I did that I failed to notice that the new folders had "My" removed from the title of the Music, Pictures, and Videos folders. When I moved them, it created a second folder in the username folder w/o My, thereby displaying two of each (one w/ "My" and one without). To rectify this, I attempted to restore them to the C: and rename the new folders and move again. But I could not restore to C: since it would not allow me access to the folders w/o My on the C:. So, I added My to the restore name, it asked me to create those folders so I did, then I created the My folders on the partition and moved them back. I went back to the C: to delete the non-My'd folders, but access is denied! WTH?!? I am the only user! I am not administrator of my own machine???

I tried to run cmd as admin and go into the Users folder that way, but I could still not rd the three folders. Aside from the folder Games (which did not have an option to move), they are the only folders remaining in the C:\Users\{username} as everything else is on the partition.



Update:
I reread the tutorial and all the comments and came across Megalodon's post here that linked to your tutorial on enabling the Built-In Administrator. Using that profile, I was able to delete the extra, non-My'd folders from my C:\Users\{username} folder. I went back into my profile and decided that I actually wanted to have the folders under a username folder on the partition in case I want to create a separate profile for my wife in the future (that way everything will look the same when I move those folders over, too). But I ran into the same problem of not being able to delete the My Music, Pictures, and Videos folders from the root partition after moving them.

So, my other question in my last post still stands: is there any way to give my username total control over my system? If not, can I rename Administrator as me and then just delete the profile I created for me? This is frustrating. I completely skipped Vista not wanting to have to deal with UAC, et al, but it looks like it finally caught up with me.

VSP

 

[Brink]

Hello VSP, and welcome to Seven Forums.

I would recommend to use your default administrator account with UAC for everyday use instead of the built-in Administrator account, and only use the built-in Administrator account as needed. UAC is a last line of defense to help prevent malware/viruses from running without you knowing about it. Anything the wants to run with elevated priviledges (run as administrator) must have your UAC permission first. Remember that if you have full control and access as a user (ex: built-in Administrator account), then so does everything that is running on the computer.

 

[VulcanSoulPatch]

Thanks, Brink... that makes sense. Guess I will just have to get over my control-freak self.

Since I don't want to have to click on an account when starting Windows, would it be advisable to disable the Admin now and only enable it when I need it?

Or, is there a way to put a timer on the selection and have it default to the {username} account if nothing is selected after a few seconds?

Thanks again!

VSP

 

[Brink]

Usually it would be best to leave the built-in Administrator account disabled until needed to prevent unauthorized usage of it.

You can also setup the user account of your choice to startup automatically.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/377-log-automatically-startup.html

 

[VulcanSoulPatch]

Thanks for the link to that tutorial. I think I will again take your advice and disable Admin until I need it once again.

I have to say, you guys are a wealth of information over here. Glad I found you. I am sure I will be coming back with more Q's, and hopefully find more A's!

VSP

 

[MBernard]

Hello Brink

I found that Adobe Bridge CS4's photo downloader opened to my C:\Users\Mary\Pictures folder; and it took 9 clicks to navigate to the subfolder on another HD where I store my initial raw photo uploads. So I followed your tutorial, and changed the default location of my \Users\Pictures folder, to a third HD.

Bridge now opened to that folder. I navigated to the disk and subfolder that I actually wanted to use, uploaded some files, closed Bridge, rebooted, and re-opened Bridge. The Photo Downloader re-opened to the last folder I'd used, on HD 2, which is exactly what I wanted. (That was its default behaviour in XP, if I remember right.)

But I'm perplexed. Why doesn't Bridge now open to \Users\Mary\Pictures on HD3, as stubbornly as it formerly opened to that folder in its C:\.... location?

And are there any downsides to changing the location of that default folder, or the Music and Videos folders?

Your tutorial was wonderfully clear, as usual - thank you.

Mary