Handling Windows 10 user folders securely.
Handling Windows 10 user folders securely.
I recently purchased a new computer with an M.2 NVMe drive, though it's only 1 GB. I want to keep things that load quickly from this small drive while still using the slower SSD I bought in 2016 for long-term storage like documents and music files. I prefer keeping organized folders such as "documents" and "downloads" on a single, faster folder—like "c:\user\..\downloads"—instead of scattering them across multiple drives with confusing names like "e:\\fetched stuff" or "g:\\downloaded files". My goal is to maintain structure without disrupting my Windows setup. I tried moving folders between drives and adjusting registry entries before, but it caused issues. Someone has experience doing this safely without breaking the installation?
You can change the system folders on a different drive via the registry. (Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders). It might be the correct method, though I’m not entirely sure of your previous actions.
Have you experimented with moving the folder locations to the copied files? Click right-click on any folder (Documents, Downloads, etc.) and adjust the Location settings. Spoiler: It works!
You were surprised by this feature I didn’t see before! I thought I was too old to touch the registry or anything technical. After trying it, it really helped with downloads. However, when I used pictures, I ended up with two folders named "Bilder" – one linked to OneDrive and the other to a local SSD folder. I’m considering turning it off and uninstalling OneDrive before handling documents, since I’m not sure how it all works. It seems to have mysterious links that I don’t fully understand. Still, the downloads are now organized better, which is a big plus for me.