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In Windows XP, the My documents folder of a user normally points to the location Systemdrive: Documents and Settings username My documents. If the system drive (which is usually C:) becomes full and there is no free space available further to store more documents, then we can move the my documents folder to another drive. Up vote 2 down vote. Log in as an admin and using a profile other than the one you want to copy. Go to System Properties (Ctrl-Break), Advanced tab, then click the Settings button in the User Profiles section. From there you can copy profiles and set the Default User profile (to be inherited by all new profiles).
Jul 31, 2019 Microsoft Windows operating systems have some user profile folders that are known as user shell folders. These user shell folders can be redirected to any path. You can use Profile Maker to redirect a user shell folder by creating a new registry item in a user configuration. In Windows XP, open Windows Explorer and go to it's Tools, Folder Options menu. Click on the View tab and change the settings to show all hidden files and folders. After changing the setting, you can use Windows Explorer to navigate to your user folder then to the folder containing the files.
The system stores user profile information in a specific directory, which has different names in different versions of Windows: 'Documents and Settings' in Windows XP and 'Users' in Windows Vista and later. To obtain the path of the profiles directory, use the GetProfilesDirectory function.
The profiles directory contains the following subdirectories for user profiles.
Directory | Description |
---|---|
ProgramData (Windows Vista or later)/All Users | Program information that applies to all users. The All Users directory still exists in Windows Vista or later, for backward compatibility. |
Default | Profile information that applies to the default user. |
User | Profile information that applies to the specified user. Each user has their own profile subdirectory. |
To obtain the location of the ProgramData/All Users directory, call the GetAllUsersProfileDirectory function. This directory contains the following subdirectories:
Directory | Description |
---|---|
Desktop | Shortcuts to display on the desktop. |
Start Menu | Menu items for the Start menu. |
To obtain the location of the default user's directory, call the GetDefaultUserProfileDirectory function. To obtain the location of a particular user's directory, call the GetUserProfileDirectory function. Both the default user and specific user directories contain the following subdirectories. Directories in italics indicate directories that are hidden by default. You can view these directories by selecting the Show hidden files, folders, and drives option in the Folder Options control panel item.
Directory | Description |
---|---|
Application Data | Application-specific data. |
Cookies | Windows Internet Explorer cookies. |
Desktop | Shortcuts to display on the desktop. |
Favorites | Links to favorite websites. |
Local Settings | Application settings and data that do not roam with the profile. Usually the settings or data in this directory are computer-specific, or they are too large to roam effectively. This directory contains the following subfolders:
|
My Documents | The default location for documents that the user creates. Applications should save document files to this directory by default. |
NetHood | Shortcuts to Network Neighborhood items. |
PrintHood | Shortcuts to printer folder items. |
Recent | Shortcuts to the most recently used documents. |
SendTo | Shortcuts to locations to which the user often sends files. |
Start Menu | Menu items for the Start menu. |
Templates | Shortcuts to template items. |
To obtain the location of subdirectories of these directories, use the SHGetFolderPath or SHGetKnownFolderPath functions.
Active1 year, 10 months ago
Is it possible to move completely you profile folder in Windows XP (Pro) to a new location?
Windows Change Users Folder Location
I'm talking about
fixer1234%USERPROFILE%
, not the My Documents
folder.22.3k1414 gold badges5757 silver badges8989 bronze badges
guillermoooguillermooo1,12855 gold badges1717 silver badges3333 bronze badges
5 Answers
There are many places on the Internet with instructions. I dabbled a little bit with this sort of stuff once upon a time and ended up causing myself more grief than good.
ScottScott1,03811 gold badge1111 silver badges2222 bronze badges
Log in as an admin and using a profile other than the one you want to copy. Go to System Properties (Ctrl-Break), Advanced tab, then click the Settings button in the User Profiles section. From there you can copy profiles and set the Default User profile (to be inherited by all new profiles).
My memory is too rusty to convey all caveats and limitations, but I have used this method extensively and it works very well. I think this should get you going down the right road. HTH.
theogtheog
You can use directory junctions/hard links (available in Windows since Windows 2000) to do this. There are a few gotchas you need to watch out for (especially if you move it to a new physical drive, as permissions do not always propagate across junctions like that), but it can be done - and if done carefully, it does work very nicely and totally transparently. (I use it myself, as you might have guessed.)
Basically, you need to log on under a different user account (since you can't move the one you're currently using!) and move your profile folder to it's new location, and then (from a command prompt) use this sort of command:
Be sure to double check afterwards that if you browse to
C:Documents and SettingsUserName
that you end up in your DestinationDirectory
. Assuming you copied ALL the files (including hidden and system files) you should be all set to log back on using your original account.Vista actually uses this same sort of thing to redirect access to 'C:Documents and Settings' to 'C:Users' (to help programs that hard-code that path, rather than using the %USERPROFILE% environment variable).
The alternative method (if you can call it that) is to re-install Windows using an unattended setup script to set the location for your user profile folder. Kind of draconian, I know, but at least that method is 'officially' blessed by Microsoft.
KeithiusKeithius
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JP AliotoJP Alioto
Use this software:
It is called Profile wizard. I have never had a problem with it and all the profile migrations have worked well.
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