I present to your attention a method by which you can move the Desktop and My Documents to another drive. Why is this necessary? Yes, because these folders usually contain a lot of all sorts of “necessary rubbish”. On the one hand, you may not need these files, but they will be needed for the system to work. Or you want all your necessary data to be at hand (on the Desktop), but often they weigh too much, and it is better to leave space on the system disk for programs. What's good about this method? Because it will not be involved here and all operations will be performed standard using windows without third party programs.
I already wrote in an article about Windows XP, but it used a script and it was necessary to edit the registry.
I'll warn you right away. It is advisable for everything to be beautiful and convenient, create a folder on another local drive Documentation. So that after completing the steps described below, you do not have junk or unclear folders.
Moving the Documents Folder in Windows XP
1) Open Start, right-click on it My Documents and choose Properties.
2) A window will open in which we press the button Move and in the next window select the created folder for documents on another drive.
3) Click OK, then Apply, agree with the windows xp message, click YES and OK =)
Moving the Desktop in Windows XP
1) Go to the path C:\Documents and Settings\(Folder with your profile)
You can find out what folder you have and its name in the Start menu in the header
2) Find the folder there Desktop and cut it into a folder Documentation to another disk.
Before moving, be sure to close everything open from the Desktop
You can test your actions by deleting or adding a folder or document in variable folders and see the changes on the Desktop and in My Documents.
Moving the Documents Folder in Windows 7
1) Same as for Windows XP
2) Click Add folder and select the created folder on another disk
3) Right-click on the newly added folder and select Set as default location.
Or just select it and press the button Set the save folder
The rest of the folders can be deleted directly in this window, but if you are afraid, then do not touch
4) Apply OK
Moving the Desktop in Windows 7
1) Start -> select your profile (top right)
2) We are looking for a folder there Desktop(Desktop), right-click on it and select Properties.
3) Tab Location, button Move
4) Select the created folder on another disk
5) We agree with all windows curses
That's basically it. Sorry for so few pictures, but I think it’s clear where to click what.
I received an interesting question, to which I considered it necessary to devote an entire note. The question was:
How to move the “My Documents” and “Desktop” folders?
Based on this lesson, you can move not only these folders, but also other service ones, for example, the “Favorites” folder.
You may have a question - why is this necessary? Well, they are sitting in one place, well, let them sit, why change them?
The fact is that “My Documents” and “Desktop” folders, like other service folders, are located on . And many people like to store folders with movies, music, photos and games right on their desktop, I’ve seen this several times already.
Therefore, for such fans this will be very useful material. Since all this information stored on the desktop or in the “My Documents” folder will be located on the system drive, which is usually smaller than the rest of the computer. And if you fill it to capacity, I’m talking about the system disk, then your computer may start to work poorly, or even stop booting.
But when you point workplace “My Documents” and “Desktop” folders on another drive, for example, drive D, then this problem will simply disappear.
You will be able to store all the information that another local disk, without worrying about the performance of the system disk.
Now let's start implementing the technical plan.
Some of you may already know about the Windows Registry. For those who don’t know, I’ll say it briefly - all system settings are stored in the registry, including the programs to be installed. From the registry you can change almost everything!
But, I must warn you that you need to poke around there with extreme caution, since one wrong step and the performance may be disrupted operating system. And then it will be difficult to find your joint! Since there are a great many entries in the registry.
However, if you have 7 installed and not XP, then you won’t have to go into the registry at all. Since everything can be changed in the folder settings. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to give complete detailed material on Windows XP, since a week ago I installed Windows 7.
But I still remember how you can change the storage location of these folders.
Moving the “My Documents” folder in Windows XP.
Moving it is quite easy, since it is a service folder, all you need to do is right-click on it in the “menu” Start" From the drop-down menu select the last item “ Properties”, then, in the window that appears, open the “ tab Destination" There you can specify the path to store this folder. Moreover, there should be a button “ Move”, when clicked, the entire contents of the folder “ My Documents” - will be transported along the path you specified.
If this folder is not in the Start menu, try finding it on your system drive in your profile folder.
But, you can force the “My Documents” folder to appear in the “Start” menu. To do this, just right-click on the “ Start”, from the drop-down menu select “ Properties”, and press the button “ Tune" A list of Start menu items will appear, and there you will find the item “ My Documents” and set it to appear as a link or menu. Don't forget to press the “ OK” so that all changes take effect.
Moving the “Desktop” folder in Windows XP.
I would like to note right away that I cannot provide pictures for the topic on Windows XP, since I don’t have this one, but perhaps it is possible move the “Desktop” folder as well as the “My Documents” folder. Just find it on your system drive and open the “ Properties”, if there is a tab “ Destination” - just change the path and click move; if there is no such thing, you will have to go into the Windows registry. Again, I can’t check this myself.
To enter the registry, run the command “ Start” - “Execute”.
In the window that appears, enter the following command - “ regedit”, without quotes. Press the key “ Enter” and you will see a system registry window.
Let me remind you once again, don’t try to fake anything there if you don’t know what you’re doing, as the consequences can be very unpredictable.
And so, the registry window is open in front of you, and now you can change the destinations of the service folders; in order to do this, you need to follow the following path (in the left column):
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
It is in this path that you can change the location of the “Desktop” folder (the right side of the window), and not only that, all service folders are registered there. And so, we go along this path, there you will see several more folders, and one of them will be called “ Desktop" or " Desktop” (in Windows 7 this folder is called this way, perhaps in XP it will be the same).
Here we select “Desktop” or “Desktop” in the right half of the window, see the picture below, however, this is a snapshot Windows registry 7:
Click to enlarge.
Please note that the “Change string parameter” window will appear and you just need to double-click on the list item, in my case “Desktop”, I have highlighted it with a red line.
A window appears in front of you where the path to the folder is already registered. Inscription " %USERPROFILE%” means the path to the user entry on the system disk. What to do now? When have you already opened such a window.
Create a folder in the location where you want it to be located, for example, on drive D, create a “Desktop” folder and indicate instead of the inscription “ %USERPROFILE%\Desktop” - “D:\Desktop”.
That's it, we apply the changes, and your desktop is already in a different location. Just don't forget to transfer everything from your old desktop to the new one. You just need to copy them to a new folder, and you can delete them from the old one.
Moving the “My Documents” and “Desktop” folders in Windows 7.
Everything is simpler here, we won’t have to go anywhere, since everything can be changed through the folder settings. You can apply everything, as I said above, through the “ ” menu, everything, almost exactly the same, you can apply everything through the registry, or you can simply find these folders, since they are all located in one place and you can call up properties directly from Explorer and change their location default location, which is what we will do now.
We go along the following path:
System disk :\ Users \ The name of your profile in the system.
Or in the start menu, select his name in the top right, under your profile picture. See the picture below.
After clicking on the name of your entry, you will immediately be taken to your personal folder, where all service folders are located. Then simply select the desired folder, right-click and select “ Properties” and in the window that appears, select the “ tab Location”:
Then create a folder in the place where you need it, press the “ Move”, in the window that appears, indicate this folder. After these simple steps, your desktop, like any other folder, will move to a new location.
Please note that the path (I have highlighted it with a red line) has changed. If it remains the same, change it manually and click apply.
To restore everything to its original position, simply select the “ Default”.
I think everything is here, as we can see, there is nothing super complicated here, and any beginner can cope with this.
PS: if you have Windows XP and you have found some simpler method, please post it in the comments. Since I can no longer have more detailed information.
In life, it often happens that the operating system fails at the most inopportune moment. And so the necessary documents remained on the desktop. The computer won't start and that's it.
Transferring your desktop to Windows
Of course, you can use a live disk from Windows, or, more realistically, from Linux. But if the system partition has already been destroyed, for example by a virus or third-party intervention, then such a “life” disk most likely will not help. Again, if there are a lot of documents and over time they already take up gigabytes.
Local drive C is running out, you have to push files to other partitions hard drive. After reinstalling the system, spend time restoring from backup. When you can do everything at once “in your mind.”
We invite you to immediately transfer your desktop to any other drive.
For example, to drive D. This way you will get significant benefits. Firstly, after reinstalling the system, since your desktop was not on system partition, which means everything on it remains unchanged; with just two button presses you can restore the previous appearance of your desktop.
Secondly, there is now more than enough space for documents, all your works, both present and future, have enough space. And finally, third, if some malicious program gets onto your computer, stealing “papers”, it will follow the programmed path, to the old address, where, of course, it will not find anything, because the desktop directories are now in a completely different place.
Now the actual actions:
Click the “Start” button in the lower left corner, then “My Computer”, then go to drive C. Then the “users” folder, then select the user, go there, find the “desktop” folder (in some cases, just “desktop” ).
In the same way, you can change all other folders in the user directory. These are “My documents”, “my music” and others...
After reinstalling the system, it will be enough to do all the manipulations again, and your desktop will be restored with all the files, as it was before the reinstallation.
Having completed all the necessary steps, you now, as a true user, no longer a “dummie”, can feel calm, your valuable files are now in a safer place.
As you guessed, today we’ll talk again about setting up your computer and operating system. To be more precise, I want to tell you how you can move, to various types Windows, the folder in which " Desktop" And " My Documents"to disk" D:\».
Perhaps you may be wondering why this is necessary? There are so many reasons for this that you don’t need to think long about it. Every day, for someone and for or such Windwos flies or file system, which leads to or .
Such cases often lead to the loss of important files that were stored on the “C:” drive, in the desktop and document folders. Of course, you can try those that were lost, but after they are restored they may be damaged. Well, disappointed users, with sadness before their eyes, begin to reinstall the system.
In this article, I will show you how you can prevent yourself from losing important files when Windows is damaged. I’ll also show you in detail, how to move the “Desktop” and “My Documents” folders for storage, on the “D:\” drive, so that later, after installation, you don’t have to worry about losing them.
Moving Desktop and My Documents Folders in Windows XP
So, to change the location in Windows XP we need, you can see how to do this here. Now, in the registry that opens, go to the following branch:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders
Pressing " Shell Folders» A large list of different properties and values will appear on the right. Here, we look for those folders in which we want to change their storage location. So, we move “Desktop” and “My Documents”, respectively, we find the items “” and “”.
By clicking on “” twice, in the window that opens, enter a new value, namely the path where our desktop will be stored.
We do the same with “”, open and enter the folder address. For example, I will store folders immediately in the root of the drive “D:\”, accordingly I will write the following value: D:\My Documents. If this is some other folder on the disk, then the path will look something like this: D:\Folder name\My Documents.
By clicking " OK», save the changes made. And in order for them to fully take effect, you must restart the computer. After this, everything that you save on your desktop will be automatically duplicated in the above-mentioned folder on the “D:\” drive.
Changing the desktop storage location on Windows 7 and 8
In the situation with Windows 7, everything is much simpler. To do this, we do not need to go into the registry or manually change the storage location of the user folders. All we have to do is simply select all the folders and cut them out.
Then, go to the desired folder on another drive and paste them there. After copying is completed, restart the computer and check the result. To do this, having created any file on the desktop, it should appear in the copied folder. If so, then everything was done correctly.
By moving the folders to another local drive, we can protect ourselves from losing our files. And let's not worry about it the next time. Windows update. By the way, I regularly use transferring user folders at work, and I want to say that this has saved me more than once in various situations. Thanks to the fact that I moved the desktop to another drive, I saved a huge amount of time that I could have spent on restoring files. So, think about whether you should change your storage location or not?
Once upon a time, at the very beginning, I wrote a couple of articles on this topic, these were articles about transferring the “My Documents”, “Downloads” folders, Appdata folders and even the entire user profile. It turned out, of course, not very beautiful (the first pancake is always lumpy :)), so someday I will completely rewrite these articles. And although all folders are transferred in a formulaic manner, remembering search engines, I will write a couple more articles: this one, about moving the desktop, and about moving the “Downloads” folder. Remembering conservation SSD drive, these actions will not only free up space on the system disk, but will also extend its operating time. So, let's get started with the operation. Same as with the others system folders, there are two ways to transfer this folder:
I. Through the conductor
II. Using Registry Editor
I. Transferring your desktop through Windows Explorer
1) The first thing you need to do is create a folder that will be used to store files and desktop shortcuts:
C:\Users\*username*
We find ourselves in a folder containing the following: 
3) Right-click on the “Desktop” folder and open its properties: 
4) Go to the “Location” tab and click the “Move” button: 
5) Go to our folder created in the first step and press the “Select folder” button: 
6) Click the "OK" button to apply the changes: 
And we agree to transfer files and folders by clicking “Yes”: 
7) Files and shortcuts have been successfully moved, and now everything you save to your desktop is saved on another partition. 
II. Transferring your desktop by making changes to the registry
1) Open the Windows Registry Editor. To do this, press the key combination Win+R and enter regedit :
2) We follow the path:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders
