How to Redirect Your Documents Folder in Windows 7
This could be my last post for a while as I am about to go on maternity leave (my due date is tomorrow so cross your fingers for me!) but before I do so, I want to share something with you.
I Love Train Signal!
My wonderful Train Signal just got a brand new laptop for me with … Windows 7!
Remember how I gave my boss a little hint in my upgrading from XP to Windows 7 article? I guess he reads my posts after all, because first thing yesterday morning I get a package with a brand spanking new laptop! I was so happy I was in tears! (Quite hormonal, yes — but there’s not much you can do when you are about to have a baby AND you get a new laptop you’ve been wanting for months).
Bragging About My New Windows 7 Laptop
Most of the day yesterday I spent setting up my Windows 7, copying files and programs, configuring my preferences, etc., and I must say, Windows 7 makes all of this really easy. I am not a Windows 7 pro and I haven’t done much training on it either but I was able to figure out almost everything on my own — it’s so easy to use.
I love the new look and feel and the speed is amazing — I really think I can get used to it quickly. Now, just so you know, I haven’t used Windows Vista that much. I know Windows 7 is supposed to be just like Vista and all, but I made the jump to 7 from Windows XP.
I still love XP and will miss it dearly, but it’s time for me to move on and “go with the flow”. So, if any of you are still on Windows XP and are afraid of installing Windows 7 — don’t be. It’s easy and you will have no problem getting used to it.
Redirecting Your Documents Folder in Windows 7
Ok, enough bragging about my new laptop and the awesome Windows 7.
What I want to show you today is how to redirect your Documents folder to a different location on you Windows 7 PC.
I like to keep my Documents folder on my D drive and as of now the default is C:\Users\Public. So, how do I change the default? Here are the steps.
1. To start, click on the start orb, point to Documents and right click. You will get a pop-up menu. Point and select Properties.
2. In the Documents Properties window, select the Library location you want to remove (in my case it is the C:\Users\Public folder) and click Remove.
3. You can remove them all or you may leave the ones you would like to keep. I am going to leave the “My Documents” location that is in my profile, in case I want to save files in that location someday. To add a new location, click on the Include a Folder button.
4. Select the folder you want to include for your Documents and then click Include folder.
5. That folder now shows in your library locations. To set it as your default save location, select it and then click on Set save location.
6. Make sure to click Apply and OK before you close that window.
7. That’s it! You can see now that I have two locations for my library. One is on my C drive and the other — the default one, is on my D drive.
8. I think we should test it. I created a word document and I am going to click on Save As. Let’s see where it is going to take me.
9. I’m not going to select anything, just type in the name and click Save.
10. Now I’m going to open up my Documents library and see where the document was saved.
Woo Hoo! It worked! The document is on my D drive!
Just like the folder redirection, everything seems to be super easy and common sense in Windows 7. Is there anything you want to know how to do?
Let us know and we’ll try to help out!
Related Posts:
- My Journey from Windows XP to Windows 7
- How to Create a New Virtual Machine with Hyper-V
- Server 2008: How to Setup a Remote Desktop on Windows Vista
- Windows Server 2008 as a LAN Router Running RIP
- Installing Software Using GPOs on Windows Server 2008
6 Responses to “How to Redirect Your Documents Folder in Windows 7”
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Robert Harrington Says:
September 23rd, 2009 at 10:46 am
Very clear presentation of redirection on th Windows 7.
If you have already had your child and want a star chart of the baby’s birth – twitter me at astroh45. For you free.
Gosia Grabowska Says:
September 23rd, 2009 at 11:21 am
Thanks Robert! I am glad you liked my post.
I will definitely twitter you once my baby is here … but for now it looks like he is going to be a little late
psg Says:
September 24th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Note: the volume of folder that you want to share must be indexed in order for the steps listed above to work. I just tried to add a network share that is not indexed and was told by Windows that I couldn’t add it.
Dustin Mobley Says:
September 24th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Great Post…I was just thinking this the other night. I had just finished setting up my WHS and though, hmmm maybe I shoudl redirect some of my folders to the WHS. Now I have a great tutorial!
Is this your1st kid. I have a 8 & 6 year old. GOOD LUCK!
roysubs Says:
September 29th, 2009 at 9:00 am
what i’m looking for (and would be very impressed if you could show !) is doing all the redirection via an PowerShell script. can you (or anyone reading this) please show how ? thanks
Rex Withers Says:
November 26th, 2009 at 3:18 am
A better solution might be to redirect the whole profile, makes for easy backup\restore of both the system volume and data volume. It will also apply to other (and new) user accounts on the same machine.
This web site shows how and I have used this many times;
http://www.windows7hacker.com/index.php/2009/05/how-to-change-user-profile-default-location-in-windows-7/
The writer says
“The default location of user profile in Windows 7 is still the same as Vista, in c:\users folder, which I often find it seems quite dumb putting user profiles in the same partition as the system, especially when I store most of my day-to-day files in my user profile, rather than another folder in another partition. So my preference of the first step after installing the OS on my own computer is always to change the default location to another partition before I actually start setting up my profile.”…..