Windows 2000 Quick Fixes

Change the folder associated with the My Documents icon

The My Documents icon on the desktop is associated with \ Documents and Settings\ user \ My Documents by default. The My Documents folder and its integration with the desktop give you an easy means of organizing your documents and opening them quickly. In some cases, however, you might want to use a different folder as your primary document folder. For example, the drive containing the default My Documents folder might be filling up and you need to specify a different local drive. Or perhaps you want to point My Documents to a network share. In either case a quick change associates the My Documents object with the folder of your choice.

When you change the folder associated with My Documents the change applies across your local system for your user account. In addition to changing the folder that opens when you open the My Documents object on the desktop, the new folder also appears when you open the Documents folder on the Start menu or select My Documents in the common file Open and Save dialogs presented by Windows.

Changing My Documents properties

You can specify the folder associated with the My Documents object through the properties of the My Documents icon on the desktop:

1. Right-click My Documents on the desktop and choose Properties.

2. On the Target property page, click Move.

3. Browse to the location of the folder you want to use for your documents, select the folder, and click OK.

4. Click OK again. Windows prompts to ask if you want to move all files in the current My Documents folder to the new location. Click Yes to move the files or No to leave them where they are.

You can easily set the folder back to its default location in the future if needed. Just open the property sheet again and click Restore Default.