Configuration of the My Documents folder

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.

If you are an administrator, you 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 complete path to storage location is the path to your storage location:

Value Name: Personal
Value Type: REG_SZ
Value Data: complete path to storage location
Any modification from the default is recorded in the following location and the preceding path is also updated:

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

Value Name: Personal
Value Type: REG_SZ
Value Data: complete path to storage locationIf you redirect 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:

Right-click My Documents (on the desktop), and then click Properties.

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 that you want to create a new folder.

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 if you click No, the files in the old location are not deleted, but 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, you can use the Restore Default option to restore the default path:

NOTE: This option is not displayed when group policy folder redirection is in effect for this folder.

Right-click My Documents (on the desktop), and then click Properties.

Click Restore Default.

The following registry value is used 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\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\ user ID

Value Name: ProfileImagePath
Value Type: REG_EXPAND_SZ
where user ID is the appropriate user ID.

Change default Save location for Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos in Windows 10

Windows 10 lets you easily change the default Save location for Documents, Music, Picture, and Video User Profile folders. You can now easily save your personal files like Documents, Music, Picture, and Videos to another drive or partition or even an external drive by default.

We have already seen how to move apps to another location and how to install Windows 10 Apps to another Partition. The procedure for changing the default save location for personal files in Windows 10 is similar.

Change default location of User folders

You can change the default location of user folders like the Documents, Music, Picture, and Videos folders via their respective Folder Properties, Settings app, or by editing the Registry. Let us take a look at the procedure involved. While we have taken the Documents folder as an example, the procedure is the same for other User Profile folders as well.

1] Change default location of Documents folder using Properties

The procedure is as follows:

1. Open File Explorer
2. Navigate to the Documents folder located in C:\Users\
3. Right-click on the folder and select Properties.
4. Open Location tab and enter the desired new path.
5. Click Move.
6. It will open the Explorer dialog box.
7. Navigate to and select the desired new location; or else manually enter the path.
8. Click Apply/OK.

The folder and its contents will get moved.

2] Change where new content is saved via Settings

Windows 10 makes things easier as you can do so via the Settings app.

Open Start Menu > Settings > System settings.

Next, click on Storage in the left pane.

Scroll down a bit and find Change where new content is saved.

Click on it to open the following panel.

Here you will see New documents will save to setting – and similar settings for Music, Pictures & Videos.

Select the location from the drop-down menu.

Thus you can set different Save locations for different types of files.

3] Change default Save location for User Profile folders via Registry

Press Win+R keys to open the Run box. Now type regedit and hit Enter to open the Registry Editor. Next, navigate to the following path:

On the right-hand side, you will a key called Personal. If you want to change the path of the Documents folder, you need to work on Personal. If you want to change the path of the Video folder, you need to use the Video. Similarly, there are Pictures for Pictures folder, Music for Music folder.

So double-click on the concerned key, and enter the new value according to your folder.

The default paths are:

• Documents: %USERPROFILE%\Documents
• Music: %USERPROFILE%\Music
• Pictures: %USERPROFILE%\Pictures
• Video: %USERPROFILE%\Videos

Having done this, exit the Registry Editor, restart your computer, and check.

The folder should have moved to the new location.

If you are suffering from the low space issues after upgrading, you can use this technique to move Documents and other personal folders from the default system drive to another drive.

Change My documents default location from command line using registry key

We can change the target location of My Documents folder by editing the registry key. In pre-Vista OS(XP, Server 2003), this folder is called ‘My documents‘. In Vista, Windows 7 and Server 2008 it’s renamed as ‘Documents‘ folder. We can use reg.exe utility from command line for changing the default location of Documents folder. The command is given below.

reg.exe add «HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders» /v Personal /t REG_SZ /d folder_new_location /f

Note that this command does not move/copy the existing contents of Documents folder to the new location.

An example command for changing my documents location is given below.

reg.exe add «HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders» /v Personal /t REG_SZ /d «d:\mydocs» /f

The above command will set the target folder for my documents as d:\mydocs.

Instead you can open registry editor by running regedit and manually change the registry value Personal В under the keyВ HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

Just a note, copying and pasting what you have there might not work, you need to replace the “ and ” with “.

Modified the command in the post. Now you can copy and paste the command, it would work fine. Thanks for pointing out the issue.

Will this also work on Windows 10? How do i change the rest of the user folders? (Downloads, Music etc)

Thanks in advance

If you browse to that registry folder “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders” you will see all the different names for the keys that correspond to the folders. Replace the “Personal” part with the desired folder
ie reg.exe add «HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders» /v Desktop /t REG_SZ /d «d:\mydocs» /f

i currently have all my user content on D drive except for app data which is still on C because i was told it works better there. when i clean install windows 10, I relocate the pointer for each folder by right clicking and adjusting locations tab. instead of me doing it that, way could i just go to this “User Shell Folders” location in reg edit and backup this location or back up the keys that are changed then just import/merge those keys back to clean installed system to point to my old data? i mean i guess its not a big deal, i could keep doing it my old way but this sounds quicker and easier to have reg-edit merge script that would do it in one click … any thoughts on this? is there a particular reason i would not want to do this?

How do I Change the My document folder to another drive

Replies (10) 

Welcome to Microsoft Community Forums.

As per the description provided, it looks like you are trying to changes the My Documents location. My documents folder cannot be moved to another drive

You will be able to copy the My Documents folder to another driver of your choice.

Refer to the link and follow the steps,

How to work with files and folders

Copy or move files and folders

This information should help. If you need further assistance regarding Windows, please post. We will be happy to help you.

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Welcome to Microsoft Community Forums.

As per the description provided, it looks like you are trying to changes the My Documents location. My documents folder cannot be moved to another drive

You will be able to copy the My Documents folder to another driver of your choice.

Refer to the link and follow the steps,

How to work with files and folders

Copy or move files and folders

This information should help. If you need further assistance regarding Windows, please post. We will be happy to help you.

11 people found this reply helpful

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Please explain the rationale for taking away the ability to move Library folders such as the Documents folder.

Windows is and has always been buggy, requiring users to eventually wipe the C: drive and reinstall the OS. The ability to move these folders to a different drive made this much safer and easier to do. Please bring this feature back!

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I found this topic because I had the same question- however, your answer does not ‘fix’ my problem. I know very well how to copy folders. The PROBLEM is that the convenience of having my own folder on the desktop with pictures, documents, etc, is completely NEGATED when I cannot use it! I, too, have a SSD (solid state drive) as my main drive, so I seek to keep the amount of data down and use my 3 TB drive for storage of things like pictures, music, etc. By not enabling me to change the primary storage location of this folder to a different disk than my windows installation, you are shooting windows in the foot. It seems absurd that you haven’t given users an easy and convenient option here.

Microsoft had better get used to complaints- because now, having a primary SSD and then secondary larger drive is becoming a pretty standard thing (especially for those who custom build, or have their computer built for them- which, when you know what you are doing, is a very reasonable option). I foresee MANY users wanting this option. And I want it. Now that there are other, reasonable OS alternatives both for PCs and outside them, Microsoft should take simple but important things like this more seriously.

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Here is a detailed explanation I found (I originally had looked here, and the primary answer given here is NOT what I think you wanted/were looking for, nor what I wanted- I already know how to ‘copy’ folders! Bleh). Fortunately, Microsoft is not stupid enough to not give us an option here. I certainly hope the person who answered your question is not their tech support staff- if it is, then I need to get a job there, because I seem to know more than they do. and when I do not, I seem to be able to find the answer better 😉 Or maybe I am just less lazy?

1) Secondary-click (right-click) your start menu button and select «file explorer».

2) Scroll down and find your primary disk where Windows is installed (we will assume «drive C» here). Double click it.

3) If it is the correct drive, it should have a folder named «Users», open it and then find your username. Open it.

4) Now you should see your various important user folders- «music» or «pictures», «video», etc. Each one you want stored on your other hard disk. You will have to move them one folder at a time.

5) Secondary-click the folder you want to move, then choose «Properties».

6) Select the «Location» tab.

7) In the folder location box, where you have something like «C:\Users\LittleRedBrush\Downloads», simply change the drive from «C» to the letter of the drive you desire, then click the «Apply» button in the lower right corner of the box. (LittleRedBrush is a random example, and just happens to be the .com location of my spouse’s brilliant animal artwork- *wink wink, nudge nudge*)
8) If the location does not already exist, it will ask your permission to create it, and then it will ask you if you want to move everything there. Click yes to do so.

Whala- there you go. Microsoft, I’d love to work for you and I’d gladly move to Washington state to do it. Feel free to offer me a job anytime 😉