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I've heard people say you should move documents from your Desktop to My Documents, in order to reduce the size of your Windows profile.

Aren't both the Desktop and My Documents part of your profile?

Do you have any other tips for reducing the size of the Windows profile?

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They are both part of your profile, yes, so that seems rather nonsensical. Perhaps this was referring to an earlier version of Windows, or perhaps after moving My Documents to a common location outside your profile, or perhaps simply to moving documents out of both your Desktop, and My Documents. – Jeremy Sturdivant Feb 28 '11 at 7:45
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To add to Jeremy's comment, you can learn about moving "My Documents" location here: support.microsoft.com/kb/310147 – Hazz Feb 28 '11 at 10:32
Another way to reduce your profile is to Not use the Documents folder, just create folder(s) on the C drive, name them anything you want besides Documents or My Documents, then store all your files in there. I don't store anything in the default Documents folder, I have never used it. – Moab Feb 28 '11 at 17:22
@Jeremy: Not the same as "My Documents", but Windows accounts can have a separate "home directory", usually a network share, to which the system automatically connects; one might have a small roaming profile and keep all files on a network server. – grawity Feb 28 '11 at 17:54
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In many organizations, My Documents is redirected to a network share, while the Desktop is still part of a roaming profile. So moving files from the Desktop my My Documents can reduce the size of a roaming profile. – afrazier Mar 1 '11 at 18:53
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3 Answers

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I found that CCleaner is a very good tool for cleaning the filesystem and registry. Also, if you have problems with space on C partition, you can use ntfs links (can use Sysinternals Junction) ... and move your profile to a different partition (I keep mine on D).

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If your users are running Outlook in cached mode, the OST file is placed in the profile, that could take up some space and is easy to get rid of.

Also look at Temporary files, deleting temporary internet files and cookies will shrink down your profile.

Also look at using Shared drives if this remains a problem. Putting documents into network shared drives will move them out of your profile and can be kept secure by modifying permissions.

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This does reduce the local footprint of the profile, however, I'd hardly consider it to reduce the overall size of the profile. – Zsub Feb 28 '11 at 11:31
I'm presuming that the user is on a network and it pulls over the profile each time he logs in. Preforming this step will reduce the size of the profile and make for faster logging on times. That's the main reasdon why I would want to keep my Windows profile small. – Joe Taylor Feb 28 '11 at 11:49
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C:\Users[username]\AppData\Local\Temp can get pretty massive. I've wiped it a few times and seen no ill results.

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