For all (recent) versions of windows, this has confused me and I hoped windows 10 would simplify it, but to no avail.
Anyway, when one opens the windows (10) file explorer, they see This PC
as pretty much the main grouping. Within that, we have documents, downloads, etc. and it seems pretty easy. However, the path of these folders is really C:/Users/name/Documents
. This PC
seems to not even exist as any kind of element of the file system.
Don't even get me started about public documents and other user's documents: it's all a mystery to me. Anyway, most of the time I'll save my files in these default folders (I should do that right?) but sometimes I save them in C:/Users/my-name
directly. Obviously that was a mistake.
The last piece of the puzzle is the program files folders. These, one finds, are directly within C:
and don't seem to be associated with any users for some reason. It would be so much easier if there were a programs
folder right alongside downloads and pictures. So if I download a program like eclipse, I'm supposed to save it in program files right? My files are in several places right now and for example, the all apps
on the start menu doesn't show several of my programs (like eclipse).
Can someone please just clarify the whole picture for me? This has been driving me crazy!