Change My Documents Folder Default Location Path in XP and Vista
Since Windows 95, all versions of Windows operating system has included a special shell folder named My Documents, or simply Documents in Windows Vista. Most programs and applications especially Microsoft products will automatically open My Documents as the default folder to save the files, images, pictures, videos, documents and etc. If you have another hard disk drive or partition, or just purchased an external portable USB/FireWire HDD drive, and would like to move the My Documents folder to another location on the same or different drive, it’s possible to change the My Documents folder default path or location to another folder.
Changing and moving “My Documents” (XP) or “Documents” (Vista) to another folder on different hard drive or partition has advantage of keeping the system partition clean and reduce the risk of running out of disk space. Beside, by placing and storing all personal or business documents, ideas, notes, files in My Documents folder that is on another separate drive or partition, users no need to worry about copy and backup the data if there is a need to format and reinstall the Windows, which may cause lost of all date stored in the My Documents in default location.
By default, the location of My Documents for your user account is located in %Userprofile% folder. For example, C:\Documents and Settings\user name\My Documents (in Windows XP or earlier) or C:\Users\user name\Documents (in Windows Vista), which is on the system drive itself.
A lot of My Documents folder location changing instruction requires modification of registry key at the following branch:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders\
The registry mod may not work and the keys’ values may be reverted back to original after system restarts. There is a much simpler method to move and change the default location of the special shell folders, such as My Documents folder.
- Create a new folder that you want to assign as My Documents folder, if needed.
- Assign appropriate folder permissions if needed.
- Click Start.
- Right click on My Documents or Documents (for Vista). You can also right click on My Documents or Documents folder that appears in Windows Explorer, or in My Computer or Computer window (for Vista), then select Properties in the context menu.
- Click the Target tab (for XP or earlier version) or Location tab (in Vista).
- In the Target box (Target folder location in XP), type the path to the folder location that you want My Documents to be, and then click OK button. For example, D:\My New Documents Folder\. If the folder does not exist, the “Create Message” dialog box is displayed. Click Yes to create the folder, and then click OK.
Alternatively, click on Move, then select a new folder that you want to move My Documents to, and click OK to select the folder as new target. Click OK at Documents’ Properties. If you need to create a new folder, click Make New Folder shortcut, or right click on blank space then select New -> Folder. Type a name for the folder, and then click OK twice.
Note: The new target folder can be another place on same hard drive, another drive or another computer on your network.
- You have the option whether to let Windows move the files currently in the original My Documents folder to your new target folder. In the Move Documents dialog box, click Yes to move your documents to the new location, or click No to leave your documents in the original location.
- My Documents now point to new folder location.
Related Articles
- Restore Windows User Personal Shell Folders to Default Location
- How to Change Windows Explorer Default Folder
- Move or Change Vista Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos, Games and Other Personal Folders Location
- How to Change Default Windows Installation Path to Your Desired Path
- Reveal and Access to Windows Vista Hidden Context-Sensitive (Right Click) Menu Item – Open Command Prompt Here & Copy as Path
- Reveal, Copy and Get File Full Path with Copy as Path in Windows Vista
- How to Change the Logo of vBulletin Forum to Custom One
- Use Vista SendTo Folder to Add or Delete Send To Menu Items or Shortcuts
- Switch, Change or Set 64-Bit Windows Media Player 11 (WMP11) in Windows Vista x64 as Default
- Vista IE7 Cache & Cookies Folder, Temp Directory and History Location
Entries (RSS)
December 6th, 2009 02:07
I have lost page-up, down line in my documents folder. A bar which help move down or up the items. can someone provide suggestions, how it can be repaired.
September 5th, 2009 00:01
[...] [...]
July 12th, 2009 15:14
One question… I do not have a target tab under properties. Where is the setting to enable this?
April 8th, 2009 21:56
I was messing around with the Documents folder in windows explorer and messed up the registry where it would not work but the registry hack worked for me. So for all you out there this is good just use the registry hack if you have messed up by moving back and forth and if it stops working.
April 4th, 2009 05:08
I whole-heartedly applaud the overall objective detailed in this article. My technique is a variation. I don’t think my method for dealing with this is necessarily better; it’s just what I do.
I don’t touch the location of the My Documents or Documents directories. I ABHOR the whole concept as implemented by Microsoft for these simple reasons:
(1) The “spider’s web” of sub-directories is a needless and annoying challenge to deal with.
(2) By creating your own data directory/sub-directory structure and naming these storage locations as YOU see fit, the naming conventions and structure are much, much easier to become familiar with. You made it … Not Microsoft.
(3) By backing up your data and ONLY your data, for those who don’t save their entire system, this makes their data backups a much, much simpler task to complete.
I recognize that certain programs (e-mail clients and other non-Microsoft programs) sometimes use paths under My Documents, but I deal with those situations individually as they occur.
There certainly may be techniques better than mine for dealing with the My Documents situation, but the way I see it, Microsoft is doing you/us/me no favor by creating this packrat’s nest for storing your data. A simple and neatly organized structure of data directories that I made myself would be much more preferred. Just MHO.
March 27th, 2009 10:04
[...] A big question you need to ask yourself now. Do I map the “My Documents” folder to the WHS or not? You can also map My Music, Videos, etc. Help on changing My Documents targets can be found here. [...]
March 17th, 2009 08:27
That’s perfect and so easy! Thank you, nice simple explanation.
February 1st, 2009 10:18
Thank you! Very helpful!!! Exactly what I was looking for!
December 21st, 2008 19:02
jey me got sorta the same problem!
but i have two disk drives and i made the my music folder locat to another drive for example: (C:)was where it 1st was. then i made it go to (E:) and theni had to take the (E:) drive out one day and then i plugded it back in and from then i have had problems (the ‘My Music’ Folder) was missing for lost? and cant find it again? help?
I am running a custom built computer:
with 2 hard drives:
(C:) = 160GB and
(E:) – 370GB
and im running Windows Vista 64BIT!
and having probs?
any ideas on how to fix this?
beecause i need to run ITUNES and ITUNES needs the My Music Folder for it to Work?
thanks
Sam
if you have an idea or know how to fix it please email me on:
tairea_samuel@hotmail.com
thanks heaps
Sam
December 15th, 2008 13:20
How can I do the same thing for Shared Documents? It doensn’t give me a target tab option.
November 24th, 2008 19:55
[...] Re: Out of memory- any ideas please?? Below is a link that will allow you to see how much Vista has allocated for system restore and change it as appropriate. It should help you free up around 10Gig if you change the space from 12Gig (15% of your 80Gig hardrive) to 2 Gig (each restore point if 300Mb)… Good Luck Vista Maximum Restore Point Storage It does also sound like you have a partition…How it got there I dont know if you bought it new (they dont sell them partitioned do they??). Below is a link with info on how to move ‘Documents’ to another partitioned drive. Change My Documents Folder Default Location Path in XP and Vista
September 28th, 2008 00:58
[...] http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/1…-xp-and-vista/ __________________ I AM PROUD TO OWN AN AMD/ATI PRODUCT Microsoft Windows Club MICHIGAN OVERCLOCKERS [center]World of Warcraft Players club[center] [...]
April 27th, 2008 18:36
How can i find my lost music folder in my documents or create new my music folder?
April 10th, 2008 06:13
This is great, my question has a twist. How do I change the default folder in Vista for saving documents. For example, I’m in outlook and there is a Word attachment. I right click on it and Save As. Vista instantly goes to the Documents folder. I would prefer to use my temp folder instead as the default location. How can I change that? Thanks.
March 22nd, 2008 22:12
Thank you so much for the tip! I went through the steps!
January 11th, 2008 05:28
If you don’t have linkd (which is in the Win2k Resource Kit), you can just use Vista’s built-in junction tool, mklink. The command, if you’re moving your “My Documents” folder to D:\Documents, would be:
mklink /D “My Documents” d:\Documents
December 16th, 2007 06:37
You left out a step… in Vista, there is also a Junction to the Documents folder, called “My Documents”. This should be updated for legacy programs that look for it, and because otherwise you leave an apparent directory that is always “unavailable.”
It can be updated with:
c:&cd \users\
linkd “My Documents” /D
linkd “My Documents”
November 25th, 2007 23:24
[...] you have change the default location of shell folders (user folders) such as My Documents folder (and Pictures, Music, Videos, Contacts and other folders [...]