Change My Documents / Music / Pictures path?

Infopackets Reader Brandon 'SpongeBoob' writes:

" Dear Dennis,

I have 2 hard drive partitions: the C drive, and the D drive. I always keep my data stuff like music, photos, and other downloaded files onto the D drive. I recently decided to format and reinstall Windows on my computer. When I click on start menu, is there a way to link the My Music and My Pictures folders to d:\my music and d:\my pictures (respectively)? I don't seem to be given the choice on whether I can change the targets. Any ideas? "

My response:

The folders you are referring to are called Shell Folders.

According to Kellys-Korner-XP.com, "shell folders are special folders that Windows uses to indicate the default location for many types of settings and data. Shell folders may be moved in a [number of ways, including TweakUI for XP, or by implementing a registry hack]."

TweakUI for Windows XP can be obtained through our site:

http://www.infopackets.com/articles/powertoys_xp.htm

As described by TweakXP.com, the registry hack entails:

1. Click Start -> Run, and type in "regedit" (no quotes) and press enter on the keyboard.
    
2. RegEdit will appear. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Shell Folders.
    
3. Right click on the folders you want to change and select Modify.
    
4. Change the path of your folder to the new path (example: d:\my music).
    
5. Reboot your computer.

Side Note: If you modify the registry and change a path of a folder, you will have to move the folder to that location after you reboot the machine. And don't forget -- always make a backup of your registry before making changes to it!