Moving "My Documents"

TychoCelchuuu

TweakUI lets me change my "My Documents" folder to wherever. The problem is, some programs stick crap in there without asking. I'm looking right now, and Battlefield 2, for instance, has created itself a folder and stashed a few files.

If I switch "My Documents" to some other folder far, far away, will this screw up existing programs? More importantly, will new programs I install start stashing their crap in the new folder, or will they still stick it in "C:\Documents and Settings\Danny\My Documents" where they go by default right now?

wunderbar

nah, you can do this without TweakUI in Windows, it's a normal feature.

I've been doing it in Windows for years, I keep a "Documents" folder on a seperate HDD, and just point "My Documents" to that folder. That means whenever I have to reinstall windows, I don't have to worry about backing up my documents, since they live on a seperate hdd. Re-install, point windows to the folder, and it's like nothing happened.

Basically, programs look for "My documents" and windows can make "My documents" any folder on the HDD, it just defaults to the normal one. Any pgoram looking for "My documents" will go to the new folder you tell it to go to.


tl;dr: you're fine.

Ruckus

The location of My Documents is retrievable as a variable. Very few programmers would be dumb enough to explicitly program "C:\Documents and Settings" into their application.

cfgauss

Ruckus wrote: »

The location of My Documents is retrievable as a variable. Very few programmers would be dumb enough to explicitly program "C:\Documents and Settings" into their application.

In other words, yes, it will break some programs.

Gihgehls

Ruckus wrote: »

The location of My Documents is retrievable as a variable. Very few programmers would be dumb enough to explicitly program "C:\Documents and Settings" into their application.

It is unfortunate that it is a non-zero number of them doing it.

Ruckus

Gihgehls wrote: »

Ruckus wrote: »

The location of My Documents is retrievable as a variable. Very few programmers would be dumb enough to explicitly program "C:\Documents and Settings" into their application.

It is unfortunate that it is a non-zero number of them doing it.

Actually, one of the guys who programmed a patch for F.E.A.R. did that, so if your system drive was anything but C:\ it would fail to install.

Oddly, this error only occured in the patch distributed via the internet. The patch was required for the Extraction Point expansion pack, and the version on the disk worked fine.

TychoCelchuuu

Alright, guess I'm boned then. I don't feel like uninstalling 3-4 games just to move My Documents. Thanks everyone.

Everywhereasign

I doubt it. I moved it without a fresh install.

Like others said, it's just a variable. Except for the above mentioned F.E.A.R patch all your other games don't say. save in C:\My Documents\Name of game. They tell the computer to save in /MY DOCUMENTS, windows figures out where that variable directs to.

I don't think it'll be a problem. But if you're worried, leave it alone.

embrik

Yeah, just move it and try it, if it doesn't work, move it back. Not hard. To change it quickly, right-click on it on your desktop and choose properties. Click the "Move" button in the target tab, and choose where you want to put it.

TychoCelchuuu

Right, it's not the new games I'm saying would break, it's the games that already stored stuff there. They won't be able to find it again.

Gihgehls

Yes, they will. Just do it. Your games aren't looking for "C:\documents and settings\you\game" they are looking for "$MYDOCUMENTS$\game" where $MYDOCUMENTS$ is any location you set it to.