How to change the user folder location. How to change the location of the My Documents folder in Windows
operating room Windows system by default provides users with special folders to save their data, such as Documents, Music, Videos, Images and so on. Most programs are configured to save user data in these directories. By default, all these folders are located on drive C: in the section Users. However, if your operating system becomes depressed and the only method of treating it is complete reinstallation formatting the disk, all your data will be lost forever. Therefore, I want to remind, especially novice users, a simple way to avoid these troubles.
So, to safely store your data even if Windows fails, you must first take care of transferring it to another drive. It's best if your computer has two physical drives, but another partition of the same drive will work too.
The first step is to open your home directory, which is located at
C:\Users\Username
Then select the folder that we want to transfer, right-click on it and select to context menu paragraph Properties. In the window that appears, go to the tab Location.
Here we see three buttons, we are interested in the middle one - Move. After clicking it, a folder selection window appears in which we must specify the new location of the standard directory. All that remains is to confirm your choice by clicking OK, and then allow the files to be transferred to a new location in the pop-up dialog box.
Such easy setup, applied to all the folders you need with your data, can save a huge amount of nerves and time in the event of a sudden failure of Windows. You simply reinstall the system, then again specify the path to your data folders on another drive and get back all your photos, movies, music, documents and even your Desktop. I recommend that you do this simple maneuver immediately after installing the system.
Requirements.
The article is applicable for Windows 2000/XP/Vista.
Information
By default, the My Documents folder is located at:
C:\Documents and Settings\ <имя
вашего пользователя>
\My Documents
But you can easily change this location to one that is more convenient for you. For example, it is useful to move the "My Documents" folder to another drive, i.e. so that the folder is not stored on the system drive “C”, but on an additional one, for example “D”. This will allow you to save all data (which is stored in the "My Documents" folder) in the event of a system crash.
Change the location of the "My Documents" folder.
Windows 2000/XP.
1. Right-click on the "My Documents" folder;
2. Select the menu item " Properties";
3. In the "Properties: My Documents" window, go to the " tab Destination folder";
4. In the "Folder" field, enter a new location and click " Apply";
5. The system will tell you that there is no such folder and will offer to create it, click the " button Yes";
6. Next, the system will ask you to move all documents from the old location to the new one, click the " Yes";
Windows Vista.
1. Open the folder with the user files, it is called the username. For example, if your user admin, then the folder is called " admin";
2. Right-click on the folder whose location you want to change, for example “Download”;
3. Select the menu item " Properties";
4. In the "Properties" window:<имя
папки>"go to tab" Folder";
5. In the text field, enter a new location and click " Apply";
6. The system will tell you that there is no such folder and will offer to create it, click the " button Yes";
7. Next, the system will ask you to move all documents from the old location to the new one, click the " Yes";
By default, the My Documents folder in Windows 7 is located in the user's directory at:
C:\Users\YourName\Documents
In the Russian version, the name of the Users folder is displayed as Users, and the name of the Documents folder is displayed as My Documents.
Sometimes it becomes necessary to change the location of the My Documents folder to something else, for example, move this folder to drive D:, say, for security purposes or to save space on the system drive. This article will tell you how you can do this.
Set a new default document folder
This method is not really a movement in the truest sense of the word, so you can immediately move on to the next subheading.
In Windows 7 there is such a thing as Libraries. There are 4 main libraries: for videos, documents, images and music. For now we are only interested in documents, although other libraries are configured in a similar way.
By default, these libraries are displayed in the Start menu, as well as in the left pane of any folder. One library can include several folders, and you can add any folders there yourself. You can do this by right-clicking on Documents and then selecting Properties. A window like this will appear in front of you:
Using a button Add folder... You can include any folder in the list, for example, D:\Documents, as I did. Then you can select the added folder in the list and click the button Set the save folder to make the new folder the default documents folder.
Please note that no files will be moved to the added folder. This way you just indicate to the system that you want to use this folder as the main one for storing documents. For example, if some program requests access to My Documents, the system will give the path to the “default folder”. Also, if, when saving a file, you click on the “Documents” library in the left panel, the file will be saved in your new folder.
If you want to move files to a new folder, you can do it manually, but it is better to use the method suggested below.
Move the My Documents folder to a different location
To move the My Documents folder to a different location, follow these steps:
![](https://i2.wp.com/web-profi.by/wp-content/uploads/Svoystva-moih-dokumentov.png)
After completing these steps, your old My Documents folder will disappear from the old location (that is, from the user profile folder). And the new folder in Explorer will appear as My Documents, regardless of what it was called before.
I hope that after reading this article you will not have any difficulties setting the location of the My Documents folder.
: documents, photo and video files. Just click on the download link and the file is saved somewhere. And often we don’t notice where exactly it is located after that, which causes a long and painful search for its location. Let's look at how to find and change the downloads folder in Windows.
To solve this problem, you can use the settings of the Internet viewer you are using. But this does not always work; for example, in Windows 10, the Microsoft Edge browser does not require such changes. Therefore, we will also describe options for changing the parameter directly in the system.
The instructions on how to change the download folder in Yandex Browser are quite simple:
![](https://i1.wp.com/nastroyvse.ru/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/nastroyki-yandex-brauzera.jpg)
Now all files will be downloaded to the selected location. To find them, you can follow the path in Explorer or you can open it in the program itself: in the download menu next to the file, click “Show”.
Google Chrome
In Chrome, the change algorithm is practically the same:
![](https://i0.wp.com/nastroyvse.ru/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/dopolnitelnie-nastroiki-google-chrome.jpg)
Similar to Yandex, here you can open the save location using the “Show” item next to the downloaded file in the download list.
Internet Explorer
If you are one of the rare number of people who still use Internet Explorer, here are instructions on how to change where you save your downloads:
![](https://i1.wp.com/nastroyvse.ru/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/posmotret-zagruzki-v-ie.jpg)
Now all files will be saved here. There is one more universal method changes for all users are made directly through the system settings.
Changing, moving and restoring a directory in Windows
If you are using different programs for surfing the Internet, it’s easier to simply change the location of the system folder where the default download occurs. This need arises when system disk is overcrowded, and you download large amounts of information from the network, which leads to freezes and slowdowns in work. First you need to know how you can find this folder on any Windows computer:
- In the Explorer window on the left in the menu next to the “Desktop” and “Favorites” items there will be a “Downloads” directory with a blue arrow.
- You can go to the system drive (usually drive C), go to Users, then click on the icon with your user name and open “Downloads”.
This directory is a system directory, so changing settings is not so easy. There is no way to simply change the folder in the system intended for downloads. But you can move it:
![](https://i2.wp.com/nastroyvse.ru/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/svoistva-zagruzok-windows.jpg)
Restoring the previous state is possible in a similar way. Just point to the previous path.
It happens that users accidentally delete this directory, or it may disappear on its own, for example, when the computer is infected with a virus. In this case, the first thing you should do is scan your computer with an antivirus and neutralize the threats.
Let's look at how to restore the save location on the system if this folder suddenly disappears, and each browser places downloads in different places at its discretion.
- Go to “Start” and select “Run”.
- Bring up the command prompt by typing cmd and clicking Enter.
- Dial in command line this entry:
attrib –s –h C:\users\user\downloads
where “user” is the name of your specific computer user.
After this, the system should restore the folder.
We looked at how you can open the system folder for downloads, change its location, how to change the default folder where the Yandex browser downloads, and some others. All this is necessary for the convenience and speed up of the computer.
operating system Windows allows you to change the path of some user folders that are in the user profile. So if you suddenly need to change the location of the folder Downloads on your own. This may be useful for those users who frequently download large files from the Internet using Microsoft Edge or other Internet programs. This article will show you how to reassign your own path for the Downloads folder in two different ways. .
Every time after next update Microsoft Edge browser kernel, the path to the Downloads folder will have to be updated again. Don't lose sight of this moment.
In the article How to add Save As to Microsoft Edge? I considered the possibility of changing the file download dialog for Microsoft Egde and now every time you download any file, the browser will offer you the option to save the file as. But if you don’t need such functionality, but just need to change the Downloads folder to your own, then read this article further.
Change the location of the Downloads folder in Explorer
Let's first look at the easiest way to change the location of the Downloads folder using the properties of this folder.
Open Conductor on a computer with Windows 7, 8, 10. Right-click on the folder Downloads in the navigation pane and select Properties.
Downloads - Properties
In the window that opens, go to the tab Location and enter a new path for desired folder downloads.
New Download Location
In this case, you can move already downloaded files to a new Downloads folder. Then press the button Yes to move all files from the old location to the new one. IN otherwise click No.
Move a folder
Now the download folder will have a new location, and all files downloaded through Microsoft Edge will end up in it.
Changing the path to the Downloads folder in Registry Editor
If you prefer to work with Windows registry, then this method will allow you to change the path to the Downloads folder using the registry.
Run registry editor and go to the next section:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
Find key with string %USERPROFILE%\Downloads. By double-clicking on the line, change the parameter to the value of the path you want to set.
Windows Registry Editor
Close Registry Editor. Now the Downloads folder has new address location. Restart your computer to save your changes to Registry Editor.
It should be noted that files that were located in the Downloads folder at the default address will not be moved to a new location, unlike the first method. If you need to have these files in a new location in your Downloads folder, move them to the new folder yourself.