Windows 2000 Administration in a Nutshell

Name

My Documents

Synopsis

A special folder that is part of a user profile.

Description

The My Documents folder is the default location for users to store their personal and work files. When you select File → Open from the menu of a “designed for Windows 2000” application, the application looks by default in the My Documents folder for the currently logged-on user. Similarly, when a user selects File → Save As to save work, it goes into the My Documents folder.

Each user who logs on to a Windows 2000 machine has his own separate My Documents folder for storing files. Each user also has an icon on the desktop that allows him easy access to his files.

The My Documents folder for a user is contained within the user profile for that particular user. For example, if a user named Bob has his local user profile stored in C:\Documents and Settings\Bob on his machine, Bob’s personal and work files will be stored in the subfolder C:\Documents and Settings\Bob\My Documents.

Tip

My Documents and other important user profiles can also be redirected to a network share using Group Policy. This ensures that users have their data available no matter which client computer they log on with. See folder redirection in this chapter for more information.

Notes

• Legacy (pre-Windows 2000) applications may not be aware of the My Documents folders, in which case administrators may need to instruct users how to locate and store their work manually in their My Documents folders for these applications.

• If roaming user profiles ...