Our Reader RJ writes to us:
ATA,
Would you know how to change the default path of the “My Pictures” short cut in XP Pro.
Default points to “My Pictures” in “My Documents”. I would like to change it to point to pictures on an external NAS drive. (Something like Y:\Pictures)
I did try changing the registry settings in Shell folders and then rebooted, but on reboot, it reverts to default and not the changed path.
Hope You Can Help
We sure can, and this one is easy. I don’t know why Microsoft hides this functionality away. Lots of my end users will benefit from this one. It is as simple as this:
- Open My Computer
- Browse to the My Documents Folder
- Highlight the My Picture Directory
- Open a second My Computer window.
- Browse to the directory where you want to put the My Pictures directory into
- Drag the My Pictures directory to then NAS Drive in the other window.
- Windows does the dirty work of updating links and shortcuts
That’s all there is to it! Glad it worked out for you RJ! Did anyone out there already know this?
Check out the comments for helpful insights from AtA Readers!
Karl,
Thank you for your help and more importantly, the prompt help. Much appreciated.
I just had one further query on this particular ‘issue’.
Would it be correct (not using the word ‘right’, to avoid confusion :))that when the ‘my pictures’ folder is dragged from origin-my computer window to destination-my computer window, it should be Right click & Drag ??
I believe I, inadvertently, did that and it works spiffingly well.
Ta very much for your help, again.
i am glad we could be of assistance tell your friends about us. but it is left click and drag for us so that might be a whole other issue!
I do this with the entire My Documents folder all the time. I move it to another partition so I can reinstall Windows with less trouble.
The one thing to be aware of is that if you ever boot the machine and the external drive is not available, Windows will recreate the folder in the default location AND keep using that new location until you manually change it back.
thanks Peter – AtA appreciates it!
It looks like I spoke too soon. Some testing with a VM shows that you can boot the system without the external drive in place and it does NOT recreate the folder. It happily operates without access to the My Pictures folder and when the drive is reconnected it connects to that location.
I guess the system can’t operate properly without the My Documents folder so that one does get recreated if it cannot be accessed.
Thanks Peter for coming back and sharing your findings with our readers. Any interest in helping out Ask The Admin?
Shoot an email to The Admin via karl at asktheadmin dot com. _NinjaAdmiN_
Worked like a charm, just what the doctor ordered.
how come i didnt know that?
Now that’s useful!
I’ve been looking for this simple solution for years, and I mean years, like early XP days I think.
I’d forgotten about it till now and when I first though of wanting to move the my documents folders around the internet wasn’t my first point of call, that’s how long ago it was, and I was a little scared of killing my computer.
This is a really good and easy tip! But, if by some chance you can’t locate the My Pictures folder or any other shell folder, you can edit the registry to resolve this by going to:
“HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders”.
Then log out and log back in and the problem should be resolved.
All precautions when editing the registry apply.
I believe the technically correct reference (which i discovered doing tech support) would be primary click and drag. Typically left click is the primary click, and right is secondary. However this is not the case if you set the mouse to reverse the mouse buttons.
I didn’t even think of that. Thanks Cory! Where are you from? We love to hear from new Admin’s! Any interest in writing up some of your favorite tips and tricks to be published on AtA?
I’m Canada. I’m the “Network Administrator” although my job entails quite a bit more than just administering the network (like programming a handheld scanning unit). I’m not too sure how I feel about writing stuff, but I will keep it in mind.
Fair enough Cory! If you are interested email me at info at asktheadmin dot com and we will get you all set up.
My computer did that. How do I manually change the location back? I can;t figure it out. Thanks.
Remove the remote drive and reboot. Access my documents and it will recreate it at the normal location.
Wouldn’t it be better to Cut and Paste the folder, rather than Drag it? If you Drag the folder it will just be making another copy of the folder on the External Drive. Now you have two copies of the same thing and you have not freed up any space. Or am I missing something? Thanks for the help.
This is the procedure after you drag and drop Windows does the work behind the scenes to change the mappings.
Hi – does this also apply to moving My Music? I’m using a backup service called Dropbox. I would like to point My Documents to My Dropbox so that everything is auto backed up as soon as a change is made. However My Documents currently includes My Pictures and My Music and it’s too big for the free Dropbox service (2GB). Let me know if I can drag both to a new location using the method mentioned above.
Thxs…Scott