{"id":864,"date":"2012-09-09T22:56:33","date_gmt":"2012-09-09T21:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fbcs.co.uk\/wp\/?p=864"},"modified":"2012-09-09T22:56:33","modified_gmt":"2012-09-09T21:56:33","slug":"users7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.fbcs.co.uk\/users7\/","title":{"rendered":"Changing the location of the Users directory on Windows 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

I've just set up a Windows 7 PC, and it helpfully asked if I wanted to create one big partition on the (1TB) disk, or to create a separate partition for 'data'.  It offered a default size of 50GB for the 'system', but I chose 100GB, with all the rest for 'data'.  And then it completely failed to put the users' 'My Documents' etc. onto the data partition.  In my experience, very few ordinary Windows users make use of space that isn't in the default location, i.e. My Documents, My Music, or My Videos.<\/p>\n

So there must be an easy way to get Windows to put My Documents somewhere else mustn't there?  Well, sort of.  Right-click on My Documents, select Properties, and change the location.  Fine.  But you have to do it for each category, and each user.  And it still doesn't move the application data, registry stuff, or the temporary files etc.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, with Windows 7 it's also possible to include arbirtrary directories into the 'library', so that could work for you.<\/p>\n

I found a good set of instructions<\/a> on SevenForums<\/a> that actually does what I want.  It's a bit fiddly, and I found those instructions incomplete.<\/p>\n

So this is my solution.  Ideally do this when setting up the computer from new — otherwise, there will be a lot of registry editing at least, and quite possibly some applications that lose track of their files. <\/p>\n

Notes: <\/strong><\/p>\n