Please, allow to change C:\Users[\xxx] location

[Fred]

Please, add a feature, in a patch or sevice pack, to allow to change
simply the location of C:\Users, or C:\Users\OneUser folder location.

I have done many internet searches, this seems not to be possible
simply.

And don't tell me that I have to change each folder location (Music,
Pictures, and so on). This does not fit my need.

Thanks.

 

[Brent]

Over a year ago, I placed the User Profiles and Program Data (not
Program Files) on a separate partition using Windows AIK (Automated
Installation Kit), the only Microsoft approved method of doing so.

It's questionable whether whatever benefits (separate partition imaging,
etc.) I have derived from doing so outweigh the costs, namely broken
Vista components, including, but not limited to, UAC File
Virtualization.

Vista was apparently designed from a security standpoint to be a
single-partition OS, requiring each User Profile's AppData to reside on
the System partition for full and correct functionality.

 

[the wharf rat]

Why, exactly, do you want to move the entire "C:\Users\<USERNAME>"

Well, let's see...

- So I could do an OS restore/upgrade without losing user data?
- So I can let users fill up their disc space without causing
the OS to malfunction?
- So I can put the user file system on network storage?
- So I can back stuff up easier?
- Because I want to even though MS doesn't think I do?

 

[Synapse Syndrome]

Well, let's see...

- So I could do an OS restore/upgrade without losing user data?
- So I can let users fill up their disc space without causing
the OS to malfunction?
- So I can put the user file system on network storage?
- So I can back stuff up easier?
- Because I want to even though MS doesn't think I do?

I doubt a simpleton that puts everything he has on a single partition JBOD
array is going to understand the benefits of any of that.

Because Windows puts the user hive of the registry, %appdata% and other OS
installation specific hidden folders there, it's not possible to make your
system very modular, like in the way that /usr in Linux is totally
scaleable. I have however been able to get it done pretty well using
symbolic links on my own computers, putting them onto RAID 1, with the OS
partitions and Desktop on RAID 0.

You need Roaming User Profiles and Active Directory to do anything like that
in Windows, which is not something that any home user is going to use. It's
not even something that I have done in the small architectural firms who I
work with as a CAD consultant. They do not need that extra complexity and
expense of administration, so all data is just stored centrally on the
server. The workstations get messy over time with multiple user profiles,
with the users wanting their own settings on any computer they may be using.

ss.

 

[the wharf rat]

There is nothing wrong with using a JBOD setup.

Sure there is. It multiplies your chance of catastrophic failure
by the number of discs (at least) while offering no performance
improvement.

IMHO building a water-cooled quad-core Phenom and installing
a JBOD array is kinda nuts, especially with terabyte sata drives at maybe
300 bucks.

 

[the wharf rat]

So do your homework first before criticizing my motives or my choices.

Well, I'm sorry you're offended, but JBOD setups are obsolete
proto-RAIDS, the storage equivalent of trilobites. I'm just as
surprised to see one in use as I'd be if an Amphilichas bit my trout fly.