Why can't I delete files and folders in the Recent Searches folders, and are
they taking up space on my hard drive?

I was just able to delete one and then restore it from the recycle bin. So I
don't know why you can't. Do you get an error message when you try?

And if you right-click on one of the searches and choose properties, you'll
see that it does take up some space. Maybe 4KB?

"jfujimoto" wrote in message
...
Why can't I delete files and folders in the Recent Searches folders, and
are
they taking up space on my hard drive?

jfujimoto

Be careful with these search folders. The saved search folders are Virtual
Folders.

For instance, the Recently Changed search folder.

When you open it it lists recently changed files. What you're seeing is a
mirror of the actual files that were found with the search. Anything you do
to the files in Recently Changed you do to the original file, because each
icon in Recently Changed is a mirror of the original file. If you delete one
of the files or folders in the search folder, you also delete the original
file or folder.

The Recently Changed search folder appears in 2 places. It is a 'link' to
the actual search folder in the Favorite Links at the top of the navigation
pane in Windows Explorer and the actual search folder is in
C:\Users\username\Searches\Recently Changed.

Although you cannot delete a file in this folder without deleting the
original file, you can delete the search folder itself without affecting the
files that are mirrored in that folder. You can also just remove the
Recently Changed folder in the Favorite Links section by right clicking the
link and selecting Remove Link, which will not effect the original search
folder in the users saved searches.

This folder is created when Vista is installed and is simply intended to
show some of the capabilities of the search component. Some users do not
like this folder since it does keep a history of files that have been
modified on the computer.

You can re-create this folder by simply configuring another search in the
advanced search options and then saving the search.

These folders do not take up any space on the hard drive, since they are
virtual. When you check the properties of these files, they simply show the
size of the actual file and the path to that file.

--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience


"jfujimoto" wrote in message
...
Why can't I delete files and folders in the Recent Searches folders, and
are
they taking up space on my hard drive?