Keeping My Documents clean

[Millivan]

I'm not a big fan of the MS's 'My Documents' folder and its daft location at
the end of a tortuously long path under C:\, but it does have its uses.
Since loads of common dialogs open it by default and it's always available
with one or two clicks, I use it for shortcuts to my most used locations.

The problem is that vendors of hardware and software alike seem to think
users want their My Documents folder filled with all manner of files and
folders they're unlikely to ever need access to and, almost definitely have
a better place for, even if they do. All they do is clutter up the folder
and make it more difficult to find the stuff you want quickly. As well as
the My Music, My Photos and My Videos that get relentlessly added by
XP/Media Player, I have My FTP Places, My Backups, MY Layouts, My Labels..
the list goes on and on.

Then there are the settings/config files that get flung in with no regard
for their relevance: I have a Corel User Files folder that gets created
from time to time. I've no idea what the files inside do and deleting them
seems to make no discernible difference, so why put them in My Documents?
(I've tried asking the Corel groups to no avail)

Even XP's own Remote Desktop wants to put its Default.rdp file in there!

Try deleting these unwanted items and they're there again next time you
reboot or use the application/device/procedure. It wouldn't be so bad if
there was an easy way to combat this menace, but the culprits don't seem to
give away their source easily and the chance of finding a way to disable
their creation or edit the path to put them somewhere out of the way is
equally unlikely.

I can't be the only one to find this infuriating and I'm sure it's been
discussed extensively, but if anybody has any tips or procedures or knows of
any good sites/topics/utilities that may help to combat this nuisance, I'd
really like to know.

 

[Richard Urban]

After countless years of people losing their personal files and documents
Microsoft decided to have a default repository for same. I guess software
manufacturers thought it was a good idea also as they all started to utilize
the My Documents folder.

You are picking a fight with the establishment and it is one that you likely
can not win. The operating system, and installed software of your choice, is
designed for the average user. For the past 10 years people KNOW where to
find their documents, or one can tell them where they should be found.

A knowledgeable person can change some program parameters (usually in
program options or preferences) to make installed programs have a default
save to another location. Again, an average user will likely never find
these settings - nor will they ever likely change them.

 

[Anthony Buckland]

After countless years of people losing their personal files and documents
Microsoft decided to have a default repository for same. I guess software
manufacturers thought it was a good idea also as they all started to
utilize the My Documents folder.

...

Some people, well, me, anyway, enthusiastically go along with
using My Documents. I use a folder in it for all downloads
such as for software purchased on-line, and I've also moved
my mail files and address book to it. Then there's a folder
for messages, one for powerpoint presentations copied from
mail sent to me, one for videos, ...

Enough to grit the teeth of those of diametrically opposed
opinion, but there it is.

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

Try a good, stiff brush & ammonia mixed with bleach.

 

[franktee]

And don't forget your gas mask.

 

[Millivan]

I'm not actually picking a fight with anybody and I've acknowledged My
Documents to be useful, but I do think my reasons for disliking it are
well-founded.

I'll freely admit I never liked the 'My..' prefix which sounded more
appropriate to kindergarten than the business community, but the lack of a
facility to allow it to be easily renamed this was a big oversight in my
opinion. It's good to see this was dropped when Vista was launched and has
remained relegated to history with Windows 7.

I don't disagree that MS had a good reason for creating a place users can
keep documents and I'm sure many users have benefitted from it, but I don't
believe it's optimised for the 'average user' - more a concession to dumb
down to the lowest common denominator.

For those of us who had the benefit of good advice and took the trouble to
partition our drives to keep data and program files separate, the lack of
flexibility of the My Documents folder seemed to undermine such good
practice and tempt users to use this friendly place instead. I'm glad I
stuck to this discipline, though, as it's made the organisation and security
of my data much more straightforward and saved my losing everything on one
occasion. Of course, the tools now available in Windows 7 make the need for
a well organised folder hierarchy much less important, at least from an
accessibility point of view.

Anyway, what I really wanted was some tips on how to get rid of some of the
unwanted stuff. I know that the folders created by applications will be
outside the scope of this group, but the 'My Pictures/Music/Videos' and the
Default.rdp used by Remote Desktop are all down to XP components, so it
ought to be possible to prevent them from being relentlessly recreated or
change the location to somewhere out of the way.

Any ideas?

 

[Smiles]

Well I keep all the contents of 'My Documents' on a separate drive so
what Microsoft's ideas are do not effect me. as a precaution I have a
folder called 'profile' in which I use a program called cobian backup
from http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup.htm
to backup data from my 'c drive' like email, favorites and other data

then I just have one complete drive to backup for use if I need to
reformat or move to a new computer

I also have a folder call 'programs' that contain any software
downloaded or run in place without installing this also helps me in a
surviving a crash from Microsoft or my hardware

 

[Richard Urban]

My Documents sounds like kindergarten language! How about the Mac "chooser".
That is like for a 2 year old.