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Changing Location of My Documents/Music/etc. in Windows XP

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Curt:
I am confused. Why do you call this a small change? Of course it is a small thing to move a folder, you move the thing, but what about all the programs you are going to install in the future? You know that many programs are hardwired to make a folder in My Documents\, user or all users. I know nothing but cannot understand how this still will be a small change when the new programs install in a directory you kind of don't have - will they all find the new location?? I don't know, but the only way out of this that I can think of (if you run NTFS, not FAT32) is to use hard-links / junctions.

Read this DC thread, or even better: study the content of this page (where you can download the very fine HardLinkShellExt from the bottom line -Hermann Schinagl has been updating it many times since May 1999 (Last Updated March 25th 2007, Version 2.700) and I expect it surely must be bugfree.) - or: download Alax.Info NTFS Links; it is also said to be very fine.

(Edit: confusing typo, and clicked "notify me of replies")

tinjaw:
Curt,

I think the part you are missing is that there are certain folders/directories on a Windows box that are special. These folders have entries in the registry that tell other programs where they can be found. So, for example, a program may ask the registry for the location of the "My Documents" folder and the registry will reply with "C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\My Documents", but it can just as easily return "J:\home\username". So, by suing something like TweakUI, you can change the location the registry is pointing to. This way all programs that use this method (which is most, if they follow Microsoft's guidelines) will find the requested folder no matter where it resides.

Curt:
You are quite right, tinjaw, this (too) was something that I have been missing!
Thanks a lot for the enlightenment!  :up:

Curt:
This leads me to a question on a maybe-not-so-different matter I also have been missing: When I bought this PC I didn't have the money to buy an installation CD but merely had to get a preinstalled version. Whoever set this up   apparently had the name   karar, because that is the name of the %username% directory. I feel annoyed every time I see it. Can I somehow change the username and still keep everything in order?

 :tellme:

tinjaw:
It depends on a couple of things. First of all, are you signing in with the username "karar"? If not, did you just change the name on the "karar" account, or did you create a new one.

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