W7 - ; in Change Drive Menu

[McLion]

Due to changes in W7 the personal folder has moved to \documents comapred to XP
In Change drive menu the ; now leads to the documents folder as well.
How can i change this back to the way it was before, pointing to my user folder, one level up from documents?

Thanks
Franz

[Ether]

You don't. This link points to the Documents directory by design, there's no reason to change its meaning.

Of course, you can change the location of your Documents folder and point it to your user profile directory - but you have to make that change in Windows, not in Salamander. There's a simple walkthrough on Windows 7 Forums

[Jan Rysavy]

Another option is add a new Hot Path (it will be available in the Change Drive menu too) pointing to your user profile directory.

[McLion]

OK, thank you guys.
Actually, I want to change it in Windows because I very much dislike the new behavior that most of the programs use the documents folder as their default place to put settings or whatever. Before, this was at the root of the User-folder and I want to put it back there. Moving the documents folder as described in the walk-trough does just move the problem, it does not solve it.

Jan, one question:
What registry key does Salamander look up for the path it uses for the ';'?

Thanks
Franz

[Jan Rysavy]

What registry key does Salamander look up for the path it uses for the ';'?

SHGetSpecialFolderLocation() with nFolder = CSIDL_PERSONAL.

[Ether]

Actually, I believe that's not a new behavior, ;(My) Documents should always point to the Documents directory, in XP as well as in Vista and 7. Most probably your XP was somehow hacked. I've never seen a system like this, all my XP's always insisted on saving everything into the My Documents folder.

[Ether]

Moving the documents folder as described in the walk-trough does just move the problem, it does not solve it.

How so? If you change the location of the Documents folder to your user profile directory, then it's the exact behavior you wanted, isn't it?

[McLion]

I post some regkeys Shell folders from my XP here, so maybe you can see the change in the structure:
It's all in German, but its exactly the same for the English version after all.

Personal: %USERPROFILE%\Eigene Dateien
MyPictures: %USERPROFILE%\Eigene Dateien\Eigene Bilder
MyMusic: %USERPROFILE%\Eigene Dateien\Eigene Musik
.. docs: %USERPROFILE%\Eigene Dateien\Dokumente

See, that the special purpose folders is one level deeper than the personal folder.
i.e. MS Messenger add its folder for downloaded files in XP to %USERPROFILE%\Eigene Dateien resulting in C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\UserName\Eigene Dateien\Meine empfangenen Dateien. A lot of programs use the 'Personal' key too add a own folder at this level, ie. Adobe adds a My eBooks resulting in C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\UserName\Eigene Dateien\Eigene eBooks

Now look what W7 (i dont know about vista) does, it changes the structure:

Personal: %USERPROFILE%\Documents
MyPictures: %USERPROFILE%\Pictures
MyMusic: %USERPROFILE%\Music

It eliminates one level, leading to the fact that all programs that use the 'Personal' key to store their setting now doe it inside the documents folder. However, from my point of view, this is a total mess. i.e. now MS Messenger add its folder for downloaded files in XP to %USERPROFILE%\Documents resulting in C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\UserName\Documents\Meine empfangenen Dateien - wheras it should be at C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\UserName\Meine empfangenen Dateien because its not a document, or even better to use the special document folder.
ie. Adobe now adds a My eBooks resulting in C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\UserName\Documents\Eigene eBooks whereas I think it should be on the same level with:
- my music
- my picture
- my documents
- my ebooks
That would make sense.
However, tis seems to be by design and I will somehow change the settings. I just dont get it why MS changes that stuff.

Anyway, thanks a lot for your time.
McLion

[Ether]

Wow. If that's true, then the German version of Windows XP has a fundamentally different structure of directories in the user profile. From what I've seen, in English and Czech versions of XP it was the same way as it is now in 7. And in Vista+ systems, the directories are no longer translated according to the locale on the filesystem level, but on the folders level.

[McLion]

From the link Jan posted:
This describes how it is on my XP system. However, W7 does not adhere to this specification

CSIDL_MYMUSIC (FOLDERID_Music)
The file system directory that serves as a common repository for music files. A typical path is C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\My Music.
CSIDL_MYPICTURES (FOLDERID_Pictures)
Version 5.0. The file system directory that serves as a common repository for image files. A typical path is C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\My Pictures.
CSIDL_MYVIDEO (FOLDERID_Videos)
Version 6.0. The file system directory that serves as a common repository for video files. A typical path is C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\My Videos.
CSIDL_PERSONAL (FOLDERID_Documents)
Version 6.0. The virtual folder that represents the My Documents desktop item. This is equivalent to CSIDL_MYDOCUMENTS.
Previous to Version 6.0. The file system directory used to physically store a user's common repository of documents. A typical path is C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents. This should be distinguished from the virtual My Documents folder in the namespace. To access that virtual folder, use SHGetFolderLocation, which returns the ITEMIDLIST for the virtual location, or refer to the technique described in Managing the File System.

[Ether]

What part of this specification doesn't Windows 7 adhere to?

[therube]

Given the discussion in this thread, might come in handy, SpecialFoldersView - Easily jump to special folders in Windows.

[McLion]

What part of this specification doesn't Windows 7 adhere to?

Look for where the 'My ..' files are placed. According the spec they are one level below/inside the 'personal' - as it is in XP. This seperates the users stuff from let's call it system stuff that resides on the 'personal' level. In W7 MS does not adhere to the spec and puts it all on the same level. Due to the fact that a lot of apps use the personal folder to create their sub-folders for configurations and temp's and whatnot, this all now is together on the same level where the user puts his ('My ...') stuff. This is weired and a mess compared to the way it was in XP.
Not yet tested - assumption: Just moving the document folder as proposed changes the personal key and therefore moves the troubles along.

So, in W7, the Documents path (and library!) is filled with configuration stuff of the apps and so on. Does that make any sense?!?

BR
McLion

[Ether]

OK, I might have finally understood. But still, I don't see where Windows contradicts MS's specification. And if you want, you can move the other folders according to your wishing. TweakUI might help you with that.

[th.]

I'm sorry but I don't get it. The only difference between XP and Vista/Win7 is that in XP the Music/Pictures/Videos folders are subfolders of "My Documents" by default and that cannot be changed without registry editing or tools like TweakUI. In Vista and Windows 7 these folders are on the same level as "My Documents", but this can be changed in the properties dialog of each of them individually (actually I did move them to get the XP-like structure because I'm so used to it). Additionally, the new "Libraries" feature of Windows 7 puts another virtual view on top of the real file structure.
What puzzles me is the existence of a special "documents" subfolder of "My Documents" on XP mentioned by McLion. This isn't standard. And BTW I'm using all of these systems in their German version.