19
2006
How to move the “My Documents” folder to another location
Many people use the “My Documents” folder to store their personal data and files. If you are storing large files or a lot of files, you may want to consider moving the folder from its default location \Documents and Settings\{current user}\My Documents to a another partition or a second hard drive. This is easy to do in Windows XP. Right-click on the “My Documents” entry in the Start menu and choose “Properties”. The dialog box that opens contains a button “Move”. Click that and then browse to the location where you want to put “My Documents”. Make sure the folder is not open before moving.
Another way to move “My Documents”, as well as a number of other special folders, is to use the Microsoft Power Toy, TweakUI, which I discussed in an earler entry.
How to move the “My Documents” folder to another location
Originally from Windows Tips and Tricks by
Changing the My Document location from properties may help, but your outlook will store your *.pst in system drive (C:).
The easiest way to change the My Document Directory is to change the entire user folder. So far I have tried it on a new installation (WinXP) so maybe u can figure out a way to do so on an existing installation. This is how:
• when installing a new system create more than one user.
• After you have installed just the OS, login into one of the users and run regedit.exe
• go to the following registry entry: * HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
• take a back of this by exporting it to C:\backup.reg
• change the value of ProfilesDirectory to “D:\Documents and Settings” or “D:\Users” or whatever u want it to be
• logout and login to the other user. Since it is going to be a first time login XP will prepare the profile of the second user, but in the new location.
• from the user accounts in control panel delete the first user and then recreate it. so that all the new settings will be created in the new location.
• now log out and login to the new location.
I think a better way is to re-direst your outlook data folder. I use Linux, now, but I did that when I was on Windows. Here’s what you do:
He’s right, the data for your e-mail, contacts, etc. is stored in the .pst file. You cannot make changes to this file while MS Outlook is open. What you need to do is move the file to your desired location while Outlook is closed and then re-direct Outlook to the new location. Like so:
Open Outlook
Get to “account settings”
> Tools > Account Settings…
Click on the Tab “Data Files”
You should see your user name and the location of the “outlook.pst” file.
Open File Explorer to this location.
CLOSE Outlook.
Move the .pst to your new location.
Open Outlook – it will complain that your ‘data’ files cannot be located, just click “Ok” through the errors.
Go back into > Tools > Account Settings…
Click the “Data Files” tab.
Click “Add…”. It’s just below the tabs on the far left.
Select “Office Outlook Personal Folders File (.pst)”. This should be selected by default.
Click “Ok”.
Browse to your new .pst location.
Select the .pst file.
Click “Ok”.
If it does not automatically set this file as default, make sure you do it manually by clicking “Set as Default” to the right of “Add…”. It’s a black check mark.
Close Outlook so the file can be reassigned as default.
Open Outlook, carry on as normal. Your .pst file is in its new location and you have all of your mail, contacts, etc.
Have fun.