Windows 7 Changing Default File Locations for Downloads and Some User Folders

  • Thread starter Thread starter RHHutchins
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R

RHHutchins

Many thanks to all who have helped me, most recently DAXnnn and Try*3. I come once again in need with questions. In cleaning up my boot partition before cloning it to a smaller SSD, I'm trying to cause USER folders My Documents, My Music, My Pictures and My Videos to be relocated to a different physical disk drive. I also want to do the same with Downloads. After trying to use MKLINK (unsuccessfully) and the Location tab in Properties for the folders (unsuccessfully), Try*3 put me onto editing the Registry. While I have not yet made any changes, I did follow his instructions to look under HKEY >CurrentUser > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Explorer > User Shell Folders and confirm what the Registry shows.


What I found was that the actions I had taken before running into problems using the Locations options had caused the Registry entries to be updated to show the new path names for My Documents (under Personal in the Registry path) and My Music. That leaves Downloads, My Pictures and My Videos to be changed before transferring data from the boot partition to shrink it before cloning. I have discovered that the My Pictures and My Videos entries contain a variable %USERPROFILE% then the folder names. My assumption (often a bad thing to do, I know) is that I can edit these entries replacing %USERPROFILE% with the path name including the drive letter etc. describing where I want to move the old data and write all new data and changes. IS THIS CORRECT?


As for Downloads, what I discovered is that the second entry in HKEY >CurrentUser > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Explorer > User Shell Folders, below (Default) is a name {374DE290-123F-4565-9164-...} which when displayed shows the value %USERPROFILE%\Downloads. Using my penchant for broad jump logic, I infer that I can edit this entry replacing the value data with the path name to where I want future downloads to be written. IS THIS CORRECT?


If I can get confirmation or correct different information, I am very close to paring down the size of my boot partition prefacing the clone operation to place what remains on my SSD.


Thank you one and all for participating in such a great forum community!


rh

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