I've got a friend at work who wants to move his user directories on his home computer from C: to D: on his XP Home machine. Is there a way to do this? He has already looked under computer management but there isn't anything about user profiles there. Is there some setting he needs to change to see that? I've got XP Pro and I think I have access to the user profiles under computer management (haven't had a chance to check yet) so I'm not sure if that is something you can do in XP Home. I'd appreciate any help yall can provide so I can pass it on to him.
Moving XP Home user directories
- Thread starter Broncho
- Start date
If he wishes to move the 'My Documents' folder for each user, simply right click the folder, choose Properties and he can easily move the folder to a different drive.
He wants to move all of the folders under the Documents and Settings direectory to the D drive. He's running a four year old computer but has a new hard drive in as D (I think he said a 40 Gig) and wants to have everything under the Documents and Settings folder on the D drive and not have Windows throw a fit.
yes you can do this under the user profile manager. select the profile. select copy to, then point it to the d: drive. then go into the user manager and change the user profile path to wherever it was placed on the d:
mobogasm, are you talking about the user profile manager in the control panel? If so, I don't see an option to copy to like you say (I'm looking on my XP Pro system). If you are talking about something else, where is it because I'm not sure what you are talking about. I also am not sure exactly what you mean when you say the user manager to change the profile directory there. If you mean under the computer managment window, then he doesn't have the option of user accounts showing up right now. Is there a setting he needs to change to allow him to see the user manager? He took a screenshot of it and showed it to me and it is no where to be found, although it is in my XP Pro computer management window.
my computer (right click) ->properties->advanced tab->select user profiles settings -> click on profile you want to copy then select "copy to" then direct to d:
by user manager I mean in the control panel under user accounts you go to advanced click on advanced again then go to users, then double click the desired user, click on profile tab, then fill in the profile path to point to d: or wherever you copied profile to
by user manager I mean in the control panel under user accounts you go to advanced click on advanced again then go to users, then double click the desired user, click on profile tab, then fill in the profile path to point to d: or wherever you copied profile to
mobogasm, I couldn't find anything that said advanced in my XP Pro User account menu from the control panel but I will pass this information along to my friend at work. Maybe the XP Home user account menu is different than mine.
edit: spelling
edit: spelling
I'm talking about XP pro and it is exactly the same for XP home also. It is the advanced tab then the advanced button in the user accounts.
Actually what he is describing will only put a copy there. It will not move it or change Windows to point to that one. That is for backup purposes only!
Here's a link to the MS knowlegebase that shows you how to do it. I will warn you though he should backup EVERYTHING he nees before trying this. There's a pretty good chance you can kill your machine this way.
Here's a link to the MS knowlegebase that shows you how to do it. I will warn you though he should backup EVERYTHING he nees before trying this. There's a pretty good chance you can kill your machine this way.
mobogasm, when I open user accounts under the control panel in XP I don't get a window with tabs. I get an XP window that gives me a list of options and the list of users on my computer. No options are given to change any settings except for the user passwords, account type and picture. I just looked and the users and passwords under the control panel on my Win2000 machine here at work and saw exactly what you described. I don't know why I'm not seeing what you are describing on my XP machine.
mikecel79, I don't know if this guy will feel comfortable editing his registry (I have a better idea of what I'm doing and I try to avoid editing the registry as much as possible) but I will point him toward that knowledge base article as a possibility. I had been thinking about looking on Microsoft's page for this but just hadn't yet. I guess I should have started there first.
I appreciate the help you guys are giving me and am happy to get any additional information/help anyone has.
mikecel79, I don't know if this guy will feel comfortable editing his registry (I have a better idea of what I'm doing and I try to avoid editing the registry as much as possible) but I will point him toward that knowledge base article as a possibility. I had been thinking about looking on Microsoft's page for this but just hadn't yet. I guess I should have started there first.
I appreciate the help you guys are giving me and am happy to get any additional information/help anyone has.
I don't like doing it either but this is the only way I know how to do it however. Microsoft doesn't even recommend it, they only provide this information in case of an emergency. I would tell your friend to redirect his My Documents directory to his D drive and let that be the end of it.
I think he is having a bigger problem with the temporary internet files of his kids. They apparently rack up a bunch of temp files. He goes in and deletes them every once in a while, but if it has been a while he starts getting errors because his disk is filling up. I've told him how to free up some space and he doesn't want to have the temp internet files automatically deleted on sign off (that way he can check and make sure his kids aren't getting into stuff they shouldn't be). He has just recently added the new disk so most of his programs are installed on C so it is pretty full (it is only a 6 gig drive).
Again, thanks for the help.
Again, thanks for the help.
He can also go into Internet Options and throttle down the amount of diskspace allocated for Temporary Internet files to a reasonable level.
Yeah, thanks werk. I was going to suggest that to him when I presented the different options I found out here. I think that will probably be what I end up suggesting he does. It is a lot easier and safer than messing with the registry.
Thanks for the help everyone. He decided not to mess with it and just adjust the setting for his temporary internet files. He also thought of some other stuff he could move of the disk so that will probably help too. Thanks again guys. 
broncho, i think you may need to enable "view classic mode" or something like that in the control panel. the view you are seeing is the XP View and if you look on the left hand side I believe when in the control panel there is an option to change it, if not look in the options/or preferences menu. Moving the user directory like this works like a charm for me many times so I'm not sure what the fuss is about. I do it all the time at work. you can copy it over, chang the path settings. then delete the old one after you have tested the new one.
mobogasm, I do have the classic view of the control panel enabled but I haven't seen an option to do that for the user account window. I'll look some more for it, although I haven't needed any more than what I already have so far and I do have access to the full range of administrative tools in pro but I like the looks of the classic windows better.
I do appreciate your help though.
I do appreciate your help though.
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