My Documents
My Documents is the commonly recognized name of a
Until Windows XP, it contained other subfolders such as "My Pictures", "My Music" and "My Videos". Starting with Windows Vista, these subfolders were moved out of My Documents and were made its siblings.
Overview
The
desktop.ini
file.[2][3]Windows Vista makes a lot of changes to this folder. Dropping "My" in its name, it is stored in \Users\[user name]\Documents
regardless of the Windows language. Windows Explorer, however, shows a different display name for it, depending on the chosen language. For instance, an English copy of Windows shows "My Documents", a French copy shows "Mes documents" and a German copy shows "Eigene Dokumente" (changed from "Eigene Dateien" in Windows XP). Additionally, "My Pictures", "My Music" and "My Videos" are not longer stored in it; they are now called "Pictures", "Music" and "Video" and are now its siblings.[4][5][6][7][8][9]
Perversion of purpose
This folder is supposed to be a personal area where users store their personal non-shared documents. Users are supposed to be sole authority of what is stored in this folder. Creating, renaming, moving, or deleting the contents of this folder is not supposed to impact the proper execution of installed software. However, many software developers have ignored this convention and as a result, this folder has become a dumping ground for the
- Remote Desktop Connectioncreates a hidden
Default.rdp
file. - Windows PowerShellcreates a
WindowsPowerShell
subfolder. - Microsoft Office creates a
Custom Office Templates
subfolder. - Fiddlercreates a
Fiddler2
subfolder. - Calibre creates a
Calibre library
subfolder. - AutoCAD 2016 creates two subfolders:
AutoCAD Sheet Sets
andInventor Server SDK ACAD 2016
.
Users cannot delete, move or organize these files without causing unwanted behavior in their software. Their option is to either live with this chaos, or simply store their files elsewhere.
Other "My" folders
Windows 98 introduced two additional folders with a "My" prefix: "My Music" and "My Pictures". They are not present in Windows Server 2003 by default, unless enabled using the Start menu customization. Installing Windows Media Player 10 or 11 on Windows XP adds a "My Videos" folder which Windows Media Player uses to store video files that are shown in its media library. In Windows Vista, "My" prefix is removed and these three folders are expelled out of what is now called "Documents". In addition, other user folders are added: "Contacts", "Downloads", "Favorites", "Links", "Saved Games" and "Searches".[10][11] Windows 10 adds "OneDrive".
Group Policy
On Windows machines which operate as part of a
See also
References
- ^ "Configuration of the My Documents Folder". Support (3.4 ed.). Microsoft. 22 February 2007.
- ^ "The Desktop.ini file does not work correctly when you create a custom default profile". Support (1.5 ed.). Microsoft. 1 December 2007.
- ^ Grainger, Brian (2 April 2006). "Unintended consequences (1) or just what are those desktop.ini files?". Independent Computer Products User Group.
- ^ "What happened to My Documents?". windows.microsoft.com. Microsoft. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
- ^ "Qu'est devenu Mes documents ?". windows.microsoft.com (in French). Microsoft. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
- ^ "Was ist mit "Eigene Dateien" passiert?". windows.microsoft.com (in German). Microsoft. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
- ^ "Folders: frequently asked questions". windows.microsoft.com. Microsoft. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
For example, if you save your text files to the Documents library, they will be stored in the My Documents folder, not the library.
- ^ "Dossiers : Forum Aux Questions". windows.microsoft.com (in French). Microsoft. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
Par exemple, si vous enregistrez vos fichiers texte dans la bibliothèque Documents, ils seront stockés dans le dossier Mes documents et non pas dans la bibliothèque.
- ^ "Ordner: Häufig gestellte Fragen". windows.microsoft.com (in German). Microsoft. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
Werden also beispielsweise Textdateien in der Dokumentbibliothek gespeichert, werden die Dateien eigentlich nicht in der Bibliothek, sondern im Ordner Eigene Dokumente gespeichert.
- ^ a b "Folder Redirection Overview". TechNet. Microsoft. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
- ISBN 9780470430132.