Change My Document and Desktop locations

[hoehne]

I would like to change the folder structure of windows during installation so that everything of importance on my computer is located in one place, the My Documents folder.

My goal is to create a folder structure as such:

c:\My Documents

c:\My Documents\Desktop

c:\My Documents\Favorites

c:\My Documents\My Pictures

This can be done after the installation by modifying HKEY_USERS\s-1 etc keys, but I want to do it before the first logon and want all desktop items to be in the My Document directories and so on. This way when I back up the My Documents folder, I know that I have backed up everything and frequent installs mean I only have to copy one main folder and everything is where it should be.

I have not been able to find other posts about this, please let me know if there is a way.

I have tried to take the special keys like HKEY_USERS\s-1 and rename them to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ etc and load those at the T-12 install slot, but this does not work. How do you convert a s-1 key to one that is usable for all users or at least the primary user account?

Thanks in advance.

[TravisO]

If you really want 1 desktop & My Documents location, just configure autologin via the TweakUI plugin MS has made. It seems silly, in fact outright wrong to force Windows into this non secure, non privacy model you are thinking up.

[amit_talkin]

nlite can also change the location of it!! however there are also registry tweaks available for it!

[jondercik]

If you really want 1 desktop & My Documents location, just configure autologin via the TweakUI plugin MS has made. It seems silly, in fact outright wrong to force Windows into this non secure, non privacy model you are thinking up.

Agreed. I dont know how well it would even work given the "All Users" and "Default User" profiles.

[jfmartel]

That can be easily done with two key.

First set all the thing the way you like (You'll have to set it with TweakUI the first time, unless you know hex code)

Then backup these entry in the registry:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders]

"Desktop"=

"Favorites"=

"Personal"=

"My Pictures"=

"My Music"=

"My Video"=

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders]

"Desktop"=

"Favorites"=

"Personal"=

"My Pictures"=

[hoehne]

I have tried to add the keys as suggested before even posting to the website. However, things don't seem to work because the actual changed keys are HKEY_USERS\S-1 keys. If my user account is created during the unattended install, I do not believe the keys you suggested will work. If anything, these keys need to be created before the user accounts are created. I am trying to load those "generic" keys at the T-12 mark of the install, but am not sure if those are loading properly or not.

As for not being secure, what is not secure about that location? I am the only user on the computer and if it is a big deal, it is not a problem to create the desktop, favorites, and other folders within the default "My Documents" directory. I had done that in the past, but was just trying to have a more direct path to my folders.

Any other suggestions on how to get this to work?

Thanks

[Solid as a rock]

Please ignore the first key, it never have exist at mine pc too. Use the second tweak, thats really all what you need to get this working

A example in my language; Dutch:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders]
"Favorites"="D:\\Mijn documenten\\Favorieten"
"Personal"="D:\\Mijn documenten"
"My Pictures"="D:\\Mijn documenten\\Mijn afbeeldingen"
"My Music"="D:\\Mijn documenten\\Mijn muziek"

[hoehne]

Ok, I see that this tweak works while adding the registry entry. How or when or what method do I use to load the tweak so that these folders exist for my first login?

I have been adding an hkcu.reg tweak in the cmdlines.txt file as

"REGEDT32.EXE /S hkcu.reg"

"RunOnceEx.cmd"

Is this the way and time to load registry entries and tweaks for all accounts?

Thanks for your input.

[tioaboa]

Another way is using the ProfilesDir entry in sysprep, this moves the whole documents and settings tree

from ref.chm in the xp deploy tools

Syntax ProfilesDir = path_to_profile_folder

Value path_to_profile_folder

Default Value "%SYSTEMDRIVE%\Documents and Settings"

Example ProfilesDir = "%SYSTEMROOT%\Profiles"

I used to use this to put my docs and settings on the D:\ drive of my PC, thats a better way than re-directing to c:\ and more secure.

[Solid as a rock]

Ok, I see that this tweak works while adding the registry entry. How or when or what method do I use to load the tweak so that these folders exist for my first login?

I have been adding an hkcu.reg tweak in the cmdlines.txt file as

"REGEDT32.EXE /S hkcu.reg"

Never heard of it?

A example:

"REGEDIT /S %CDROM%\install\TweakUI\TweakUI.reg"

You could add this line in your runonceex.cmd.

More info: http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/view/web/17/