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up vote 16 down vote favorite
7

This question is not about user folders, but rather the Public user folder on Windows 7.

How do you map folders such as Music, Pictures, Video to a different location.

If you right click, go to properties, and look at the location tab it's not editable on Windows 7.

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5 Answers

up vote 19 down vote accepted

The solution posted by Ivo did not work for me. As Omar originally wrote, the textbox within the location tab was not mutable, and there were no browse or move buttons.

I found the following solution which worked for me:

  1. Close all folder windows.

  2. Open an elevated Command Prompt window by clicking Start, All Programs, Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.

  3. Click the Start button. Press and hold the CTRL and SHIFT keys, and right-click on an empty area in the Start menu. You’ll see a Popup menu containing the two options namely Exit Explorer and Properties. Choose "Exit Explorer". Your start menu and task bar will disappear.

  4. Switch to the admin Command Prompt window

  5. In the Command Prompt, type explorer.exe and press ENTER. This starts the Shell under elevated privileges.

  6. Now you can open up the original public folders and should have full access to the location tab, including restore, move, and "find target" buttons.

  7. Once you've done moving your public folders, log off and then log back in to return explorer to pre-elevated levels. This is an important security step.

For reference, the above is summarized from here: Move Button Missing From the Location Tab for Public Folders in Windows Vista

(If the administrator account is enabled, the above may not work - in this case simply log in as administrator and you should have full access to the location tab of public folders)

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For Step 6, this only worked for me if I opened the shell from the taskbar (if I did that from the start menu it did not work). But it worked, answer accepted. – Omar Shahine Jul 7 '10 at 17:50
up vote 3 down vote

Move or Change Vista Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos, Games and Other Personal Folders Location

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Worked for me on Windows 7, logged in as an Adminstrator. – Clay Nichols Jan 7 '11 at 14:51
This is for sure easier if your permissions allow you to edit the location box. But as Omar originally wrote, there are cases where it's not editable. – Jason Feb 21 '11 at 21:55
up vote 1 down vote

This link at Microsoft has some detailed instructions - I didn't find safe mode necessary just using an administrator-level command.

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up vote 0 down vote

I was trying to confirm your issue, but I have no problems changing the location of any of the folders within the Public user folder.

  • Have you tried to simply move the folder elsewhere?
    • You might not have the appropriate permissions
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up vote -1 down vote

You could just replace them by creating symlinks.

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How do you use symlinks? – Simon Sheehan Jan 2 '12 at 16:03
@SimonSheehan: superuser.com/a/347946/24500 – surfasb Jan 2 '12 at 19:39

protected by nhinkle♦ Jun 21 '11 at 19:50

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