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I have parred down boot drive from over 500GB down to 200GB! So far so good! Looks like I will get a 240-256GB SSD....
I have parred down boot drive from over 500GB down to 200GB! So far so good! Looks like I will get a 240-256GB SSD....
I don't get it. People seem to shrug off the behavior after changing the location of a folder...leaving behind a reference to a folder under shell:UsersFilesFolder that no longer exists. Am I missing something? This sounds like a bug to me.
For example, when I open the new location of "My Music" (D:\MediaFiles\Music), in the Windows Explorer address bar, it shows the shell:UsersFilesFolder>Music (MKANET>Music). This causes problems with navigating to one folder higher (in the folder hierarchy) when hitting backspace on the keyboard. Instead of moving to the parent folder (D:\MediaFiles), it takes me back to shell:UsersFilesFolder showing me folders that are no longer here.
Is there a way to fix this behavior? I can't imagine why someone would want to go to shell:UsersFilesFolder and see references that no longer exist. This kind of makes this a useless feature. Wouldn't I be better off not moving the My Music folder and just making a new folder? I could then point my Library directly to the new location and make all shortcuts to the new location; which would prevent issues with navigation.
Anyway, I'm hoping there's just a way to remove bogus folder references under shell:UsersFilesFolder once the folders are moved. The only time I would want there to be a reference to a folder there is when it's actually there!!
-MKANET
Hello MKANET, and welcome to Seven Forums.
These references are not bugs, but are to junction points for backwards compatibility for apps made for older versions of Windows to still be able to run on Windows 7. The links below can help give more details about junction points and their purpose though.
Junction Points in Vista
Junction Dysfunction by Raymond Chen
Hope this helps,
Shawn
Wow, that was a fast reply Brink! And, you explained exactly why this happens.
Now, my next question is... I dont have any apps that make references to the folder locations I moved; and the apps that do, are made for Vista/7 (which are all 64bit).
Do you know of a way to override the junction point for "My Music"? That's the only one that I really care about. Maybe there's a registry location that can be modified? This would be a very useful tweak for people that know for sure they dont use old applications that point to the location that was moved.
Thanks in advance!
MKANET
MKANET,
Usually using OPTION TWO in the tutorial on the first page to move say the "My Music" folder to another location will change what the junction point references to as well. The shell:UsersFilesFolder shell command calls to open your C:\Users\(user-name) user profile folder at that location unless changed using OPTION ONE, and not your My Music folder though. Since you moved the My Music folder, it will no longer appear in your user profile folder.
Moving your My Music folder using OPTION TWO would also change where the junction point references it at unless a mistake may have been made while moving it.
For your My Music user folder, you could use the shell:My Music shell command instead to open it no matter where you have moved it to instead.
Brink, does that mean you don't know of a way to override the junction point for "My Music"? I only changed the location of My Music. Nothing else.
Edit: Actually I have a much easier question... how can I make a shortcut to the new location of "My Music" (D:\MediaFile\Music) without Windows interfering? I just need a shortcut to go to "D:\MediaFiles\Music" instead of "MKANET\My Music". I dont have the shell:UsersFilesFolder
shell command specified in the shortcut, but it still takes me there.
I figured out a clever way to create a shortcut to the new My Music folder. This will also work for any other folder with a junction point...
If you have a shortcut that takes you to shell:UsersFilesFolder\My Music instead of the new folder location you specified, modify the shortcut properties and change the path to have the short 8.3 DOS file name equivalent path..
So, for me, I just modified the shortcut to have the path: "D:\MULTIM~1\MYMUSI~1"
Worked like a charm! Interestingly, after I made the change, when I go back into the properties it still has the long name (as if I never changed it). However, it still retails the new location; and, doesnt let Windows take me to shell:UsersFilesFolder\My Music
I'm happy to hear that you found a workaround that will work for you. However, you would want to use shell:My Music instead to open your Music folder.
Huh? :) "shell:My Music" opens the wrong folder; at least, for what I was trying to do. It opens the folder under my profile folder instead of the new "actual" location specified by me. That's the whole point of the workaround mentioned above.
Just to be clear, the workaround above allows people to override Windows Vista/7 behavior to open the modified location set by the user (in the Windows Explorer address bar, it will show "Multimedia\Music" instead of shell:My Music; which would be... "MKANET\My Music"
This is useful for people who create shortcut icons to this location; and, need the flexibility to navigate from that location in the filesystem (once they open an Explorer window); instead of being restricted under the user profile folder.