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Change the drive for My documents folder

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I am rolling out W2KPro and I want the My Documents folder to point to the d drive instead of documents and settings on c. I can right click on the folder and move it, but only for the profile (user) I am logged in as. Does anyone know how to move the folder for "all users"?

9 replies

by aaron_wurthmann

Right click on the "My Documents" icon on your desktop and change the target to your "d" drive. You will be promted allow Windows to automatically move the files under "My Documents".

by carolguz

Thanks but that only changes the folder for the user logged in. I need it to change for "all users".

by ivision

I haven't tried this, but perhaps you could try adding a system environment variable? Right-click "My Computer" click "Properties," click the advanced tab, and click "Environment Variables." The upper box is user-specific, the lower is system-specific.
For the path use the %username% variable to assign it to the currently logged in user. (eg. D:\mydocs\%username%)

by xtrapollis

FOR ALL NEW USERS
1. Create a temporary user to make a new template or use an existing user as a template user.

2. Change the following registery keys.
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders]
"My Pictures"
"Personal"

Use something like: E:\USERS\%username%

3. Log off. Then copy the NTUSER.DAT file from that user to the Default User Profile path replacing the older file.

FOR EXSISTING USERS
Create a onetime login script or a simple batch file that can modify the registry key above. Users should be prompted to log off and then log back on for the changes to become effective.

FOR ALL EXSISTING USERS - AUTOMATED
This one would require you to change the registry key for each user that has an account and has logged onto the system in the past. It is also possible to do this via the NTUSER.DAT; however, if each user's settings are different, this can cause major problems.

There may be other ways to do this that require various levels of programming or scripting. If you are talking new users, then #1 is good. If you are talking <100 users, #2 should be adequate--in fact, there is not reason that #2 couldn't work for any number of users. It just requires them tolog on, run script, then log off & back on again. Of course, you can automate the running of the script and logging them off.

by xtrapollis

You can also move the whole "Documents and Settings" folder manually.

First copy the folder to the new location. This may require changing permsissions on a few files.

Then update the ProfilesDirectory to point to the new location.
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList]

Next, change the %ALLUSERSPROFILE% variable. To do this, add a new system variables, and set it to the path of the "All Users" directory under the "Documents and Settings" directory.

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I recommend not deleting the orginal folder location until you are sure that everything is working. A quick check is to add or delete shortcuts to the startmenu and check which folder they are being edited in. Be sure that security permisssions are set properly. Otherwise, you may get errors or not be able to login.

by carolguz

Thank you very much. I apologize for forgetting to come back in here and accept the answer. I am creating a new "build" with w2k that will be ghosted to each computer so I simply changed the registry settings on my build. Worked great!

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