Removing Subfolders In Documents...Permanently

[Bold_Fortune]

Removing Subfolders In Documents...Permanently

I've been working on this tweak for a very long time. I thought this being MSFN, and since MSFN has the best and the brightest, like maxXPsoft, to name one, that maybe we could put our heads together and finish it.

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Removing the subfolders in Documents (or Shared Documents) Permanently...

Note: When you delete the desktop.ini file from Shared Documents, the folder is renamed to simply Documents.

In order to permanently delete the My eBooks, My Music, My Pictures, My Videos subfolders from appearing in the Documents (or Shared Documents) folder in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents (or Shared Documents) and in My Documents in C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\My Documents, you first have to unregister the mydocs.dll, and then delete the folders.

(Although, it's very difficult to stop the Shared Music folder from returning in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents (or Shared Documents). We'll get to that down below.)

To unregister:

Start > Run > type in - regsvr32 /u mydocs.dll and click OK

Then go here and delete their subfolders folders:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents (or Shared Documents)

and here

C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\My Documents

Now, about the "Shared Music" folder in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents (or Shared Documents)....

Go to Windows Media Player Tools > Options > Library tab > Click on Monitor Folders > Highlight C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\My Music > then click Remove. You can even remove any other paths to folders you may see in there.

Now...

Again in WMP go to Tools > Options > Rip Music tab. Under "Rip music to this location" click the Change button. Then create your own special folder in a location of your choice. I made a folder called Temporary Downloads on my D Drive.

(Keep this in mind, if at some point you clear the MUI cache for ripping and burning Cd's, the new designated folder path you created in WMP could very well disappear, and WMP will default to the path C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\My Music.)

While you're in WMP, go to Tools > Options > Privacy and take the tick out of "Update music files by retrieving media info from the Internet." I do this mostly to stop album cover art from cropping up on my computer. You may like the album art.

The "Shared Music" folder in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents (or Shared Documents), is the most difficult folder to keep from returning.

However, you can delete the Value data of a certain registry string. (Let me say here, this is to be done in addition to what I have outlined above.)

Navigate in the Registry Editor to...

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders.

In the right panel look for this entry...

My Music REG_SZ C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\My Documents\My Music

You will notice that since you unregistered the mydocs.dll as I outlined above, that the Value data for "My Pictures" and "My Video" have already been removed.

Double click on My Music, and delete the Value data. Don't delete the entire String, just the value data.

Now navigate also to here:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders

In the right panel look for this entry...

CommonMusic REG_SZ C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\My Documents\My Music

Just as you did above, Double click on CommonMusic, and delete the Value data. Don't delete the entire String, just the value data.

NOTE: If you use MRU Blaster, the Value Data you just removed will return here:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders.

...and also, the My Music folder in C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\My Documents will return.

...and, the "Rip music to this location" you chose in Windows Media Player will revert back to C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\My Documents\My Music.

NOTE: Using Ad-aware to remove the MRU (Most Recently Used), the Value Data you just removed will return Here:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders

...and, the Shared Music folder back to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents will return.

There is one another part of this tweak that needs some work. I don't have it figured out yet, so if you have any ideas, let me know...

When you rip a music CD, the "Shared Music" folder will return to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents (or Shared Documents) ...no matter what. But this is the only time, as far as I can see.

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[maxXPsoft]

I've never got that much into removing the sub folders cause I place all my files elsewhere and this My Docs junk seems to be for the totally NOOB. I do several of the things you do IE: unregister mydocs.dll and then point everything elsewhere as it happens and have to do that on each Unattend and it is annoying.

nuhi

may have some insight into this cause I haven't studied it yet running through the .inf/sif and things because I've been looking at the bigger picture. Perhap's theres a way to do away with them from the beginning which would be nice.

Doing a search on My Music returns only 10 keys in the reg

Looking at them we see we don't need the ones with the SID as they are Temporary untill a normal shutdown which adds the temp stuff into the appropriate place but deleting them will also make sure they not entered..

[HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-19\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders]
"My Music"=""

Might take some experimenting which as I have found in the past occasionally render's you unable to boot. I wouldn't think these keys wouldn't matter though because they don't really exist till you actualy shutdown.

If you've used my Jump2Reg then do a search on each Sub folder and you'll see what I'm talking about.

I am pretty positive we can't touch the actual My Docs and Settings folder

[interminded]

Great !

Just joined the forum and already got something I wanted..

Thanks for that !