changing default My documents from C to D

[mw]

How do I go about changing the default My documents directory so that any
user or new user will have their documents not on the C drive but on another
hard drive? I understand how you can go in and change it from the users
profiles but I want to make the change permanent so that any new users that
are added will automatically have the My documents folder routed to a
different hard drive (D) instead of ( C )?


Thanks

 

[Volunteer J]

How do I go about changing the default My documents directory so that
any user or new user will have their documents not on the C drive but
on another hard drive? I understand how you can go in and change it
from the users profiles but I want to make the change permanent so
that any new users that are added will automatically have the My
documents folder routed to a different hard drive (D) instead of ( C
)?

Thanks

========================================

See the following article:

(310147) How to Change the Default Location
of the My Documents Folder
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310147/en-us

 

[mw]

Thanks, this is helpful when there is a profile already created but I want
the default changed so that if a new user is created it will automatically
not save to C

 

[Tim Meddick]

Change the following registry value to make the change apply to all newly
created profiles :

[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User
Shell Folders]

"Personal"="(drive:\path-to-new-documents-folder)"

Where you must replace the "drive:\path-to-new-documents-folder" with a
valid drive [d:] and path.

However, since the old value would be "%USERPROFILE%\My Documents" if you
use a singe "Static" path for the new value, then ALL profiles will, in
future, be using the exact SAME folder as their documents folder! If
that's what you want - okay.

*NB you should also change these other values (under the same (above)
reg-key) :

"My Pictures"="(drive:\path-to-new-documents-folder\My Pictures)"

In the same way.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[John John - MVP]

That (HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT) is the System account's profile, Tim. The OP
should use the Load Hive feature in Regedit and load the Default User's
NTUSER.DAT file, located at C:\Documents and Settings\Default User.

John

Change the following registry value to make the change apply to all
newly created profiles :

[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User
Shell Folders]

"Personal"="(drive:\path-to-new-documents-folder)"

Where you must replace the "drive:\path-to-new-documents-folder" with a
valid drive [d:] and path.

However, since the old value would be "%USERPROFILE%\My Documents" if
you use a singe "Static" path for the new value, then ALL profiles will,
in future, be using the exact SAME folder as their documents folder! If
that's what you want - okay.

*NB you should also change these other values (under the same (above)
reg-key) :

"My Pictures"="(drive:\path-to-new-documents-folder\My Pictures)"

In the same way.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

Thanks, this is helpful when there is a profile already created but I
want the default changed so that if a new user is created it will
automatically not save to C

 

[Tim Meddick]

I'm not too sure about that.

I have always used the "HKU\.default" key to chance *any* registry settings
and they WILL be transferred to any new user profiles.

I can see that the hive in "Documents and Settings\Default User"
(ntuser.dat) is different (incomplete) to that of what you call the
SYSTEM's (HKU\.Default) key, but nonetheless, there are registry settings
in HKU\.Default\Software that are translated to new profiles where they do
not even exist in the loaded hive from "Default User" folder....

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

That (HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT) is the System account's profile, Tim. The OP
should use the Load Hive feature in Regedit and load the Default User's
NTUSER.DAT file, located at C:\Documents and Settings\Default User.

John

Change the following registry value to make the change apply to all
newly created profiles :

[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User
Shell Folders]

"Personal"="(drive:\path-to-new-documents-folder)"

Where you must replace the "drive:\path-to-new-documents-folder" with a
valid drive [d:] and path.

However, since the old value would be "%USERPROFILE%\My Documents" if
you use a singe "Static" path for the new value, then ALL profiles will,
in future, be using the exact SAME folder as their documents folder! If
that's what you want - okay.

*NB you should also change these other values (under the same (above)
reg-key) :

"My Pictures"="(drive:\path-to-new-documents-folder\My Pictures)"

In the same way.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

Thanks, this is helpful when there is a profile already created but I
want the default changed so that if a new user is created it will
automatically not save to C

mw wrote:
How do I go about changing the default My documents directory so that
any user or new user will have their documents not on the C drive but
on another hard drive? I understand how you can go in and change it
from the users profiles but I want to make the change permanent so
that any new users that are added will automatically have the My
documents folder routed to a different hard drive (D) instead of ( C
)?

Thanks
========================================

See the following article:

(310147) How to Change the Default Location
of the My Documents Folder
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310147/en-us

 

[John John - MVP]

It's a common misconception, but I assure you that HKU\.default is the
System profile, what you see before anyone logs on is held in this hive,
things like the log on screen wallpaper or the logon screesaver for
example. The HKU\.default hive file path is
%SystemRoot%\system32\config\default, new user hives are created from
C:\Documents and Settings\Default User\NTUSER.DAT

John

I'm not too sure about that.

I have always used the "HKU\.default" key to chance *any* registry
settings and they WILL be transferred to any new user profiles.

I can see that the hive in "Documents and Settings\Default User"
(ntuser.dat) is different (incomplete) to that of what you call the
SYSTEM's (HKU\.Default) key, but nonetheless, there are registry
settings in HKU\.Default\Software that are translated to new profiles
where they do not even exist in the loaded hive from "Default User"
folder....

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

That (HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT) is the System account's profile, Tim. The
OP should use the Load Hive feature in Regedit and load the Default
User's NTUSER.DAT file, located at C:\Documents and Settings\Default
User.

John

Change the following registry value to make the change apply to all
newly created profiles :

[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User
Shell Folders]

"Personal"="(drive:\path-to-new-documents-folder)"

Where you must replace the "drive:\path-to-new-documents-folder" with
a valid drive [d:] and path.

However, since the old value would be "%USERPROFILE%\My Documents" if
you use a singe "Static" path for the new value, then ALL profiles
will, in future, be using the exact SAME folder as their documents
folder! If that's what you want - okay.

*NB you should also change these other values (under the same (above)
reg-key) :

"My Pictures"="(drive:\path-to-new-documents-folder\My Pictures)"

In the same way.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.




Thanks, this is helpful when there is a profile already created but
I want the default changed so that if a new user is created it will
automatically not save to C

mw wrote:
How do I go about changing the default My documents directory so that
any user or new user will have their documents not on the C drive but
on another hard drive? I understand how you can go in and change it
from the users profiles but I want to make the change permanent so
that any new users that are added will automatically have the My
documents folder routed to a different hard drive (D) instead of ( C
)?

Thanks
========================================

See the following article:

(310147) How to Change the Default Location
of the My Documents Folder
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310147/en-us

 

[Tim Meddick]

Whatever, John, as I said, what you say may be true.

However, you skilfully avoided parts of my reply.

Please re-read (carefully) my re-quote :

"I can see that the hive in "Documents and Settings\Default User"
(ntuser.dat) is different (incomplete) to that of what you call the
SYSTEM's (HKU\.Default) key, but nonetheless, there are registry settings
in HKU\.Default\Software that are translated to new profiles where they do
not even exist in the loaded hive from "Default User" folder...."

....and you will see that the first part of it *agrees* with you!

But what about the rest????

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[John John - MVP]

I did not "skillfully avoid" anything. I didn't want to start an
argument and I simply decided to let it slide because I thought you
would do your own tests and realize for yourself that your assertion
that "... *any* registry settings...WILL be transferred (from
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT) to any new user profiles..." is wrong.

You can easily test this with something as basic as the Wallpaper
setting. Do any changes in HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control
Panel\International or HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop or add
any bogus keys or values in HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software and see the
results for yourself, these changes *will* *not* be transfered to new users.

Some legacy applications might read and write to this key, even
Microsoft applications might do so for compatibility reasons and some
programs and services that run as Local System will write to this key
but the notion that the HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT hive is the default profile
for new users is a common misconception that some Windows 9x users carry
with them to NT operating systems.

On W9x operating systems user profiles are optional, you can log on to a
W9x installation without a profile. Unless a certain network key is set
in the W9x registry you can simply hit "Cancel" when asked for a User
Name or password and the system will log you on without a profile, when
you do so you use the HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT profile. On W9x installations
new profiles are created out of this hive but on NT systems things are
different, profiles are not optional, you cannot hit cancel and logon
without a profile and new profiles are not created from the
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT, HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT is the System profile.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2007/03/02/1786493.aspx
The .Default user is not the default user

As for the suggestion that the default profile path can be changed for
any new users by making changes to the "Personal" value at
HKU\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User
Shell Folders that too is easy enough to test.

To change the default profile path for new users you need to do two things:

1- Copy the %SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\Default User *and* the
%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\All Users folders to the new folder
of your choice.

2- Modify the ProfilesDirectory value at
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList to reflect the change in the Default User
and All Users directory location.

John

 

[Tim Meddick]

I will go as far as to admit ALL what you have stated is correct - EXCEPT
......

The data contained within :
[HKU\.Default\Software]

....although these keys are NOT present in the loaded hive (ntuser.data)
from the "Default User" folder.

Nonetheless, they exist in [HKU\.Default\Software] and are transferred to
new profiles!

(e.g. the key [HKU\.Default\Software\AVG] does NOT exist in the "Default
User" hive but "miraculously" appears in new profiles!!!???)

That is what I merant when I said you were ignoring my statements.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[ro1414]

I just figured out the same issue on my computer.

Open Regedit.
Click on the local machine hive "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" then click File->Load
Hive. Browse to C:\Documents and Settings\Default User" and choose
"ntuser.dat". You can make a backup copy of the file prior to this if you
want to be safe.
The Default User folder is not shown by default so you will have to have
hidden files showing (Tools, Folder Options, View -> Show Hidden files and
folders).

Regedit will ask you to name the hive. Choose whatever you'd like ("temp
NTUSER" was my choice). Now navigate to
HKEY)LOCAL_MACHINE\temp_NTUSER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders].

Change the "Personal" key to whatever value you want (I.e. "D:\%USERNAME%")

Then navigate back to the top of that hive you just created so it is
highlighted and click File->Unload Hive.

Create a new user and see where their documents go. Just tried it in a VM
I'm running and it worked as required.

-Riley