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Summary: The My Documents folder is typically in a very specific place for each user in Windows XP. The good news is you can move it, and it's easy to do.
Turns out there are a couple of ways to do this, and both are fairly simple. • The quickest and most complete way I know of is in Windows Explorer to right click and hold on C:\Documents and Settings\(your user name)\My Documents, and then drag it to the new location. When you release it'll ask what you want to do. For example, on my primary machine, my "My Documents" folder is located in C:\Documents and Settings\LeoN\My Documents. In Windows Explorer I navigate to locate that folder, right click on it and hold, and then drag it over to the root of my D: drive. This is what I see when I release the mouse:
"Many people are very tempted to go in and simply edit
the registry; I recommend against that."
Selecting Move Here does several things:
Many people are very tempted to go in and simply edit the registry; I recommend against that. If you don't want to do everything that's listed above, a quick way to only change the registry setting is our old and free friend TweakUI. After downloading and installing TweakUI from the Microsoft web site you can run it, and then expand My Computer and then click on Special Folders. There you can drop down a list of all the special folders Windows keeps track of. Select My Documents:
As you can see TweakUI is already reflecting the change I made above by using Windows Explorer. Note also the descriptive text below the setting indicating that changing the setting here will not move any files, and in fact describing the method used above to do so. If you click on the Change Location button TweakUI will give you a warning, but then let you select a new location for the My Documents folder. Note that no mater how you move it, some applications may still refer to the old location. You'll need to update each application as problems arise. In reality, moving My Documents is best done when first setting up a system. Related:
• Recent Comments
Thanks for that, but is there a way to move the whole "Documents and Settings" to a second hard disk, rather than just the My Documents? Many thanks. Posted by: Bill P. Godfrey at February 22, 2008 05:59 AMYour article is very useful. I used to di it by editing registry. I have two questions I see that TweakUI is for XP. Is there a TweakUI for Vista, or will the above TweakUI work in Vista? Posted by: Sam W. at February 23, 2008 07:57 AMCan I do the same with the programs folder? I want all of those in a separate partition. Posted by: annon at February 23, 2008 10:33 AMAnother way, which doesn't require TweakUI is to right click on the "real" my Documents folder (by Real I mean the start menu icon, or the desktop icon but NOT a shortcut to My Documents, and NOT the actual location on the disk) usually the easiest way to do this is rely on the one on the start menu as this will be the real folder (assuming you haven't created extra shortcuts to My Documents on your start menu) and click the then you get the option right there to "move". Simply type in or browse to your new location and click Apply/Ok and Windows will offer you to move all your existing documents to the new location, whilst at the same time updating the registry. Posted by: Eli Coten at February 23, 2008 02:43 PMI have recently purchased a Toshiba lab top equiped with Windows Vista (use to Wndows XP). Where are the document I save, where is save as tab, what folder do they go to? I have a the present a free trial of Microsoft. Is that worth purchasing or would it be benifical to purchase Windows XP and do away with Windows XP? Posted by: Ann Hardegree at May 12, 2008 07:45 PMPost a comment on "How do I change the location of the My Documents folder?":
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