Changing Default My Documents ?

[+Bob+]

Back when I used XP as my primary machine, I used tweakUI to change
the My Documents default to a network drive. I am wondering if there
is a similar utility for Vista (actually to change it back).

When I brought up my Vista machine and connected my network drives,
Vista noticed the shared drive with My Documents on it (from my XP
days) and all on its own grabbed it as the default. As a result, most
of my applications default to using the shared drive for storage.
Likewise, when I do a File -> Open, most applications default to the
shared drive.

Unfortunately, Vista does not do this a slickly as XP. When I boot in
another location and the shared drive is not available Vista gets
cranky and lots of things don't work well.

Is there some way to get Vista's default back to something under
c:\users so that it will always be available?

Thanks,

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi +Bob+,

Vista doesn't use the nomenclature "My" anything, except as a junction
point. Unless you had network profiles (ie: not local), it certainly would
not have redirected the user data storage folders simply because one exists
on a network drive. Vista's default is C:\Users\<username>\Documents (no
"My", in fact the "My Documents" that you see is nothing more than a
junction point that redirects back to "Documents"). If yours is currently on
a network drive, then simply right click the folder, choose properties and
change the target on the Location tab. No program is needed for this.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[+Bob+]

Hi +Bob+,

Vista doesn't use the nomenclature "My" anything, except as a junction
point. Unless you had network profiles (ie: not local), it certainly would
not have redirected the user data storage folders simply because one exists
on a network drive. Vista's default is C:\Users\<username>\Documents (no
"My", in fact the "My Documents" that you see is nothing more than a
junction point that redirects back to "Documents").

I understand about the c:\users and the old "My" references... but it
definitely made this decision on it's own. At no point did I redirect
anything - but it clearly defaulted to my shared network drive.

The only way I can imagine that it could possibly have keyed in is
through user security - all the machines involved use a common
user/pass scheme for connections (no A/D or domains).

If yours is currently on
a network drive, then simply right click the folder, choose properties and
change the target on the Location tab. No program is needed for this.

Thanks, did that, choose "Restore default". It changed the setting
from "M:\" to "c:\users\me". I imagine some of my programs are going
to be peeved the next time I run them and I will have to move a few
directories around, but it's worth that pain to correct the pain the
shared drive causes.