User Folders - Restore Default Location

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

   Information

This will show you how to restore the default location of all or a single user folder of your choice in Windows 7 and Windows 8.

   Note

If you have duplicate user folders instead, then you will need to backup the contents of the duplicate user folders, do OPTION TWO below, delete the duplicate folders, then you may need to restart the computer a couple of times first before the default location is restored.

Windows 8.1 Update released on April 8th 2014 via Windows Update, renamed SkyDrive to OneDrive.

CONTENTS:

• Option One: To Restore Default Location of User Folders in Properties
• Option Two: To Restore Default Location of User Folders using a BAT file

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

OPTION ONE

To Restore Default Location of User Folders in Properties

NOTE: If using this option does not restore the user folder back to the default location, then use OPTION TWO below instead.
1. If you are in 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. 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.

3. Right click or press and hold on the user folder (ex: My Music) that you want to restore the default location for, and click/tap on Properties.

4. Click/tap on the Location tab, and Restore Default button. (See screenshot below)

5. Click/tap on OK. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: Notice that the location has changed to the default C:\Users\(user-name) location.

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

   Note

If you have a folder in the default location named for the user folder already, then you will not see this dialog box.

Windows 8 will not have the "My" in front of the user folder name anymore.

User Folder | Folder Name Contacts |Contacts
Desktop |Desktop
My Documents |Documents
Downloads |Downloads
Favorites |Favorites
Links |Links
My Music |Music
My Pictures |Pictures
OneDrive (Windows 8.1 Update)|OneDrive
Saved Games |Saved Games
Searches |Searches
SkyDrive (Windows 8.1)|SkyDrive
My Videos |Videos

7. Click/tap on Yes. (See screenshot below)
WARNING: If you do not click/tap on Yes, then you will have two copies of this user folder at the C:\Users\(user-name) location. One will be a normal folder (same name) with the contents and the other as the now restored user folder. It is recommended that you click/tap on YES.

8. After a few seconds when the location has been restored, the Properties window (screenshot under step 5) will then close.

9. If you are in 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 clicking on Save Changes. (see screenshot below)

OPTION TWO

To Restore Default Location of User Folders using a BAT file

   Note

This is an example of the contents of the .bat files below. The parts in red are what will vary per .bat file based on what user folder it is for.

@echo off 
 
taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
 
timeout /t 2 /nobreak >nul
 
if not exist "%UserProfile%\[B][COLOR=red]Pictures[/COLOR][/B]" mkdir "%UserProfile%\[COLOR=red][B]Pictures[/B][/COLOR]"
 
reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders" /v "[COLOR=red][B]My Pictures[/B][/COLOR]" /t REG_SZ /d "C:\Users\%USERNAME%\[COLOR=red][B]Pictures[/B][/COLOR]" /f
 
reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders" /v "[COLOR=red][B]My Pictures[/B][/COLOR]" /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /d %%USERPROFILE%%"\[COLOR=red][B]Pictures[/B][/COLOR]" /f
 
attrib +r -s -h "%USERPROFILE%\[COLOR=red][B]Pictures[/B][/COLOR]" /S /D
 
timeout /t 1 /nobreak >nul
 
start explorer.exe

1. Do step 2 to 13 below for what user folder you need to restore the default location of.


2. To Restore the Default Contacts Folder Location
A) Click/tap on the download button below to download the file below, and go to step 14 below.

Restore_Contacts_Default_Location.bat


Download


3. To Restore the Default Desktop Folder Location
A) Click/tap on the download button below to download the file below, and go to step 14 below.

Restore_Desktop_Default_Location.bat


Download


4. To Restore the Default My Documents Folder Location
A) Click/tap on the download button below to download the file below, and go to step 14 below.

Restore_Documents_Default_Location.bat


Download


5. To Restore the Default Downloads Folder Location
A) Click/tap on the download button below to download the file below, and go to step 14 below.

Restore_Downloads_Default_Location.bat


Download


6. To Restore the Default Favorites Folder Location
A) Click/tap on the download button below to download the file below, and go to step 14 below.

Restore_Favorites_Default_Location.bat


Download


7. To Restore the Default Links Folder Location
A) Click/tap on the download button below to download the file below, and go to step 14 below.

Restore_Links_Default_Location.bat


Download


8. To Restore the Default My Music Folder Location
A) Click/tap on the download button below to download the file below, and go to step 14 below.

Restore_Music_Default_Location.bat


Download


9. To Restore Default OneDrive Folder Location in Windows 8.1 Update
A) Click/tap on the download button below to download the file below, and go to step 14 below.

Restore_OneDrive_Default_Location.bat


Download


10. To Restore the Default My Pictures Folder Location
A) Click/tap on the download button below to download the file below, and go to step 14 below.

Restore_Pictures_Default_Location.bat


Download


11. To Restore the Default Saved Games Folder Location
A) Click/tap on the download button below to download the file below, and go to step 14 below.

Restore_Saved_Games_Default_Location.bat


Download


12. To Restore the Default Searches Folder Location
A) Click/tap on the download button below to download the file below, and go to step 14 below.

Restore_Searches_Default_Location.bat


Download


13. To Restore the Default My Videos Folder Location
A) Click/tap on the download button below to download the file below, and go to step 14 below.

Restore_Videos_Default_Location.bat


Download


14. Save the .bat file to your Desktop.

15. Unblock the downloaded .bat file(s).

16. Double click/tap on the downloaded .bat file to run it.

17. The .bat file will now kill explorer causing your screen to go blank, then open a command prompt to quickly restore the default location of the folder in the registry, restore the default attributes of the folder, restart explorer, and close the command prompt.

18. Repeat step 1 above for any other user folder you need to restore the default location of.

19. When finished, check the user folder(s) to verify that they have been restored to their default location.

20. If the user folder(s) still have not been restored to their default locations, then restart the computer and check again.

21. When restored, copy your files from the old folder location back into your now restored default folder location in "C:\Users\(user-name)".



That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Change the Default Location of User Folders in Windows 7 and Windows 8
• How to Customize Default User Profile in Audit Mode
• 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 Restore the Windows 7 Public Folders
• 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 Create User Accounts on another Partition or Disk During Windows 7 Installation
• How to Change the Name of "My Documents" without Renaming the Folder
• How to Change the User Folder Name of a User Profile in Windows 7
• How to Restore Default Junction Points in Windows

 

[Arron 88]

I used option 2 to restore. After restarting several times without the My Documents folder showing up, I created a new My Documents folder. A warning came up saying that the folder already existed, when I continued the linked folder appeared.

If I click on continue, another window appears saying that I have been denied permission to access the folder and that I need to use the security tab to gain access. However the security tab does not allow me to change permissions.

 

[Brink]

Go ahead and use step 3 in OPTION ONE of the tutorial below to have all hidden files show, then post a screenshot showing the contents of your C:\Users\(user-name) folder to see there may be another hidden documents folder.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/394-hidden-files-folders-show-hide.html

 

[Arron 88]

I was able to delete the linked folder and then after restarting the normal My Documents folder appeared. Guess I was too impatient before.

Now instead of moving the user folders, I am using your tip to save HDD space by creating new folders and adding them to the appropriate libraries.

Thank you for your assistance and for posting such good information.

 

[Brink]

That's great news Arron. You're welcome.

 

[flexjoly]

all pictures lost?

Hello,

Thank you very much for this tutorial. I followed the second option to recover my lost \Pictures.

I was moving this folder to a different partition. I wanted to move the files manual, because it was more than 1gb of pictures. And i had duplicated files, so I was checking and merging. (visipics)

I changed the path in the location tab. Windows asked if it should move the files. I clicked 'NO'.
The location worked nice.

But when looking at the old folder, it was gone!
I tried this tutariol to get the old folder back. But it did not help. It just got back to the new location.
I rebooted several times.

I searched for deleted files with recuva, diskdigger. Recuva cant find anything. Diskdigger hangs at 50%; after about an hour I stopped it. I used both the light and heavy searches.

I began to doubt if the old folder was a the physical location or that is was a symlink already.
But I did check that, and did not see another location.
I have about 5 partitions. The userfolder is in E: and the documents symlinked already. So I have done this before and i (think i) know what i am doing

It seems the settings are ok, but the physical folder is lost and wont come back.

Is it possible for windows to remove the directory location without any trace? That even the files in it, cannot be found by recuva?
if so, is there a way to recover the dir, so the files come up again.

I have searched for hours now. I just cant find the answer

I hope someone can help me out.

Thanks in advance!
Flexjoly

 

[Brink]

Hello Flexjoly, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Yep, you should have clicked on "Yes" to move the files with the folder.

You might see if using OPTION TWO in the tutorial to restore the default location may still have the file in the original C: location when finished.

 

[flexjoly]

Hi Brink,
Thanks for your reply.

I did not find 'option three', only one and two in your tutorial.
My user profiles are on E: , so there should be no files on C:

Did windows delete the dir?
But no files are found with recuva. Is that normal?
Or does that mean I looked wrong and the files were already in another location?
It seems too strange that the files are totally gone.

Greetz, Flexjoly

 

[Brink]

Sorry, that should be OPTION TWO.

 

[gbds]

Brink,

I've tried OPTION TWO several times and keep having the same problem: after the first restart, it appears that everything is working fine. However, after a second restart, all the registry values revert to what they were before and everything is screwed up again.

This computer is on a domain and the Music, Pictures, Videos, and Documents folder are all defaulting to the user's Active Directory Home location instead of the local path. For example, the Location tab for "My Documents" has the Location as "\\SERVERNAME\Home\username\My Documents" instead of "C:\Users\username\Documents".

None of the other computers on this network and domain have this problem, so I know it's not an Active Directory issue. When I log on to another laptop (on the same domain/network) with my username, everything is fine. shellersonal leads to the local My Documents folder in the C:\Users folder. Only on this one computer, shellersonal leads to the network location. And it's not just my username, any user that logs onto this one specific computer has the same problem.

Like I said, I've tried option #2, but after a couple restarts, the registry values just revert back to the network locations.

Any thoughts?

 

[Brink]

Hello gbds, and welcome to Seven Forums.

I'm afraid that I have no experience with domain issues. This tutorial was intended for local accounts instead.

I wish I could help more.

 

[flupke01]

Hello Brink, first I want to thank you for this great tutorial!
I tried to restore 4 messed up folders: downloads, documents, pictures and music. Restoring the first 2 folders worked fine, but I am encountering problems with the 2 other ones. Though I followed your guide exactly for 3 times already, I still get a "file not found" when I execute step 25. I already restarted my system for 6 times and there are no duplicate files. Also both folders do not have a location properties tab.

I followed your guide before, about a year ago. At that time all went fine. I don't get it and it's driving me crazy! Hope you can help me?

best regards,
Edwin.

 

[Brink]

Hello Edwin, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Double check both registry locations (step 18 and note box at top of OPTION TWO) to see if they have the correct paths and names as shown in the screenshots.

Not sure why it took as long, but some folks have reported that the correct default folder didn't show up until the next day.

Hope this helps some for now,
Shawn

 

[flupke01]

I already double checked those locations many times. Also I've read the note box. I checked it all; all is like it is supposed to be, it just doesn't work.

Guess I have to wait till tomorrow, hope a miracle will happen then...

 

[Brink]

If it doesn't show up tomorrow, then you could either do a repair install or create a new administrator user account for yourself to use instead.

After creating the new account, log in to it, and copy anything you want from the old account into the new one.

For example:

• Any shortcuts from desktop and Start Menu.
• Your pinned taskbar items, jumplists ,or toolbars.

 

[Marionet]

It didn't work for me. I used option 2. Everything goes well till step 25. When I give the shell command: shellersonal
I got a window saying: access denied. I logged off and on again and gave the shell command again. This worked and the window with username\Documents opened.
However when I open under Libraries Documents I see next to the name My Documents: This folder is unavailable.
When I double click on My Documents under Documents I get a window with the following text:
Location is not available.
C:\Users\username\Documents\My Documents refers to a location that is unavailable.It could be on a hard drive on this computer, or on a network. Check to make sure that the disk is properly inserted, or that you are connected to the Internet or your network, and then try again. If it still cannot be located, the information might have been moved to a different location.
I checked but my documents are in the directory C:\Users\username\Documents\My Documents.
What to do next? How can I make the directory available?

 

[Brink]

Hello Marionet, and welcome to Seven Forums.

The "Location" tab, will only be available if you open your "My Documents" folder from the actual "C:\Users\(user-name)\My Documents" folder location and not from any other location (ex: library).

User folders are symbolic links, and that's why it has two paths linked together. The "My Documents" path is just for backwards compatibility, and the "Documents" path is the true reference path. It can get a bit confusing.

In the Documents library, the actual path to include your My Documents folder is "C:\Users\(user-name)\Documents" instead of "C:\Users\(user-name)\My Documents". Changing the path to the correct one should sort that for you.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[flupke01]

If it doesn't show up tomorrow, then you could either do a repair install or create a new administrator user account for yourself to use instead.

After creating the new account, log in to it, and copy anything you want from the old account into the new one.
For example:

• Any shortcuts from desktop and Start Menu.
• Your pinned taskbar items, jumplists ,or toolbars.

I successfully repaired Windows, all seems to be ok now. But I seem to have 2 new (hidden) folders now: $SysReset and $WINDOWS.~BT. What should I do with those folders, can I throw them away?

 

[Brink]

That's great news flupke.

These are left over files from the repair install. Double check in them to make sure that there's nothing in them that you want to copy back. If not, then they are perfectly safe to use Disk Cleanup from step 22 in the tutorial below to delete them.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

 

[Brink]

Hello Marten, and welcome to Seven Forums.

If you use OPTION ONE, then be sure to click on Yes at step 7 to have your files moved back with your My Documents folder when it's restored to the default "C:\User\(user-name)" location. If you don't, then the files will just remain in the folder on your D: drive.

Using either option is pretty straight forward and safe, but I would recommend to copy your files to another location just to be extra safe. This way if something should go wrong while moving your folder back, you will still have the copied files as a backup.

The hard drive will not be affected.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[kebinpatrick]

I'm glad that this TUT really help.. Finally i can restore my folders default location without formatting! Thanks a lot!