CompTIA A+® Certification All-In-One For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

2.5. Location of Major Files

Many types of files are stored on your Windows computer, and most of these files have standard locations where you can expect to find them. This section looks at the major types of files.

2.5.1. User files

Since Windows NT 4.0 was released, all user-related files have been placed in C:\Documents and Settings, with each user having a folder in that directory. This location holds all files related to or that are personal to that user. This user-specific folder is called the user profile, and it includes the following folders:

• Desktop

• Application Data

• Temporary Files

• Documents

• Start Menu

Windows Vista has the same basic structure, but it stores all this data in the C:\Users folder.

2.5.2. System files

In addition to a number of user useful programs, the Windows OS has certain files required to make the computer operate. The files that are required to make the computer operate are found primarily in the Windows directory. Without these files, the OS would not function. Windows NT and Windows 2000 store these files in a folder named C:\WinNT, which differentiated them from the files that were used by the other main family of Windows at the time (Windows 9x), which stored its files in the folder named C:\Windows.

Because there is only one official family of Windows, starting with Windows XP, C:\Windows is used to hold the OS files. The two main subdirectories of that are System and System32, which hold critical files for the OS, such as DLLs.

2.5.3. Fonts ...