Change the location of the My Pictures folder
Posted on July 8, 2009 at 5:28 am
One way Windows helps you organize your files is to direct different kinds of content to different locations. There’s a Music folder, a Videos folder, a Saved Games folder, and a Pictures folder. Put all your digital pictures in your Pictures folder, for example, and that’s where most photo applications will prompt you to open and save your files.
And as explained in the previous section, Windows Explorer will be more likely to display your pictures as thumbnails if they’re in the Pictures folder (or a subfolder thereof). But what if you don’t want to put your pictures there? Previously, I wrote about how you can change the location of the My Documents folder, but what if you only want to move the My Pictures folder?
Since years of digital photos can take up gobs of hard disk space, many people have started storing their pictures (as well as their music) on second hard disks, and it can be a pain to have to manually switch to the new location each time you need to open or save a file. The solution is to tell Windows where your Pictures folder ought to be, a
task that requires a quick Registry modification (make sure to backup the registry first):
1. Open the Registry Editor by running “regedit”
2. Expand the branches to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders then choose My Pictures:
3. To edit the value, double click the “My Pictures” registry entry and enter a new path of the My Pictures directory:
For example, to change to “D:\Pictures”, enter that path to the value data field then click OK:
The change should take effect immediately, but you may have to restart any open applications before they’ll recognize the new location. To test the change, open Microsoft Paint (mspaint.exe), and select File > Open. The default folder should be the path you entered above.
Ben Carigtan shows you how it’s done!
» Filed Under Windows Vista
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If you are unsure of tweaking the registry, just use the MS Powertoy for this:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx
It’s called TweakUi, and let’s you set all these types of folders
There is no ( User Shell Folders )
WOW! Not being a computer Geekette’, I have been wondering for months how to do what you have presented here. I have numerous partitions on 4 external drives. Thus, I can do the same for My Downloads, etc,….
Thank YOU
Windows Vista(/7)? has a GUI for this. Just right-click your Pictures folder, click Properties, choose the Location tab, and change the location from there. Easy!
Yes, auscompgeek is correct. In fact, the other method didn’t even work for me. Not sure if I did something wrong, but the other way is easy, intuitive, and safe.
The only problem is that now the Library links in Win 7 still point to the old location on the C drive. When I try to delete to old references, I’m told that I do not have permission and cannot delete them. ARRGG!!
Hi, quick question…I had changed the location of my My Documents folder to an external drive, but then my computer crashed. I replaced the hard drive and reinstalled Windows, but how can I make the new version of Windows connect to the old My Documents folder with all my data without it overwriting it and erasing everything? Thanks.
Thanks for this!! I am guessing I can change the location of just the My Videos folder by changing the My Video key in the registry right? I have large videos and want to store them on an external drive.
I have a question I had a ton of pictures under videos and a file named tracing.. so I went to the picture properties, went to location and clicked on apply default.. it said it would move it.. i thought it did but now i can not find my pictures… help!