Topic: Windows XP, 2 profiles, one My Documents

[ober]

So with my work laptop, I have to login to the corporate network when I'm here.  When I'm at home, I have to login with a local account which has internet access and all that, but it's still 2 seperate accounts.

I want to keep a central "My Documents" folder that can be accessed through either and hopefully link to the "My Documents" location referred to by windows throughout the OS.

Obviously I have to create a folder on C called like "MyFiles" or something, but I'm tripping up on the part about linking the Windows reference of "My Documents" to this location.

Ideas?

[charlie]

This post isn't intended to help, but do you really need to make Windows think the My Documents folder is somewhere else? I just make a shortcut in both places to my actual documents folder and any time an application tries to take me to the My Documents location I just follow the shortcut to the real folder.

By the way, maybe this will help (see TweakUI)?

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

[ober]

I thought about the shortcuts, but why make the extra click, ya know?

[Steve]

This should do it for ya (do to both users, obviously)

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310147

Change the Default Location of the My Documents Folder
To change the default location of the My Documents folder, follow these steps:
1.   Click Start, and then point to My Documents.
2.   Right-click My Documents, and then click Properties.
3.   Click the Target tab.
4.   In the Target box, do one of the following:   
        •Type the path to the folder location that you want, and then click OK. For example, D:\My Stuff.

If the folder does not exist, the Create Message dialog box is displayed. Click Yes to create the folder, and then click OK.

-or-
      •   Click Move, click the folder in which to store your documents, and then click OK twice.

If you need to create a new folder, click Make New Folder. Type a name for the folder, and then click OK twice.

5.   In the Move Documents box, click Yes to move your documents to the new location, or click No to leave your documents in the original location

I would do the file transfers manually to avoid data loss/overwriting. For example "My Music" from user "A" could be replaced by "My Music" from user "B" accidentally if you allow windows to move them for you, instead of combining them.

[ober]

Thanks Steve!  I already have the files in one place... just need to create the redirection.  I'll give this a shot. 

[Steve]

No problem, i did this once before but i dont remember why lol.

[jkim]

I did it once before too, but then I found a lot of weird things happening to where things ended up, so I changed it back...

[ober]

.... like what?

[Steve]

The only issue ii could see might be programs nstalling. What i mean is windows knows you changed the default, but programs that save files to my documents wont know, you would have to manually adjust the setting in some cases.

[ober]

Yeah... I'm not too worried about that.

[Steve]

Shoudl be fine then. The only other thing that comes to mind is defrag, but it should know the default location has changed

[ober]

??  Why would the location matter?  I'm using diskkeeper anyways.

[Steve]

When defrag "organizes" files that existed prior to the new settings, it may move them back to their original locations. Just a guess.

[ober]

..... on the disk... not by path?  Since when did you ever have a defrag program that actually moved your file locations???

[Steve]

i dont use windows defrag because last time i used it my mp3s ended up scattered all over the place