Configuration of the My Documents Folder (221837)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server
This article was previously published under Q221837

SUMMARY

The My Documents folder is a component of the user profile that is used as a unified location for storing personal data. By default, the My Documents folder is a folder in the user's profile that is used as a default storage location for saved documents.

Optionally, an administrator can use folder redirection in a group policy to modify the location of My Documents to reside on a network share. When users save documents to the My Documents folder, the files are actually saved on an assigned network location and can be backed up by the administrator.

MORE INFORMATION

The path to the My Documents folder is stored in the following registry key, where path is the complete path to your storage location:

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

Value Name: Personal
Value Type: REG_SZ
Value Data: path

Any modification from the default is recorded in the following location and the path listed earlier is also updated:

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

Value Name: Personal
Value Type: REG_SZ
Value Data: path

If the administrator redirects My Documents by using group policy folder redirection, the path is present in this value and the option to modify the location of the My Documents folder is not available when you view properties of the My Documents folder.

How to Change the My Documents Folder Storage Location

When the properties of the My Documents folder (the desktop icon) are displayed and a group policy has not been established to redirect the folder, you can change the path to the My Documents folder and you can move the contents from the old location to the new location:
  1. Right-click My Documents (on the desktop), and then click Properties.
  2. In the Target box, type the new path to the My Documents folder, or click Move to browse to the folder and if needed, create a new My Documents folder. If the path you type does not exist, you are prompted to confirm creating a new folder.
  3. Click Yes to move files from the old My Documents location to the new location, or click No if you do not want to move these files. Note that clicking No does not delete the files in the old location, but means they are no longer visible from My Documents after the change.

Restoring the Default My Documents Path

If the current My Documents path is incorrect or is no longer available, the Restore Default option may be used to restore the default path.

NOTE: This option is not displayed when group policy folder redirection is in effect for this folder.
  1. Right-click My Documents (on the desktop), and then click Properties.
  2. Click Restore Default. The restore operation uses the following registry value (where user ID is the appropriate user ID) to determine the default location based on the user's profile and appends "\My Documents" to form a complete path:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\user ID

    Value Name: ProfileImagePath
    Value Type: REG_EXPAND_SZ

Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:11/21/2003
Keywords:kbinfo kbui KB221837
©2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.