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Creating personal data/special folders
On Fri, 22 May 2015 07:30:44 -0700, "Ken Blake, MVP"
wrote: On Fri, 22 May 2015 07:30:40 +0100, Mike Barnes wrote: Char Jackson wrote: In the beginning, I remember seeing lots of "balance your checkbook!" and "organize your recipes!" types of claims. :-) I don't need a computer to help me with either of those tasks, so I'm glad that more uses were realized over time. I've been balancing my accounts using Quicken for probably 25 years, 25 years is about the same for me too. and while "need" is slightly too strong a word, I really wouldn't want to be without it. Ditto! It makes it *much* easier and faster. I'm mildly amused. :-) Are we still talking about adding some numbers and then subtracting that total from another number, or is there more involved? I'm just thinking that by the time you fire up Quicken, you probably could be done already. |
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Creating personal data/special folders
On Fri, 22 May 2015 10:15:58 -0500, Char Jackson
wrote: On Fri, 22 May 2015 07:30:44 -0700, "Ken Blake, MVP" wrote: On Fri, 22 May 2015 07:30:40 +0100, Mike Barnes wrote: Char Jackson wrote: In the beginning, I remember seeing lots of "balance your checkbook!" and "organize your recipes!" types of claims. :-) I don't need a computer to help me with either of those tasks, so I'm glad that more uses were realized over time. I've been balancing my accounts using Quicken for probably 25 years, 25 years is about the same for me too. and while "need" is slightly too strong a word, I really wouldn't want to be without it. Ditto! It makes it *much* easier and faster. I'm mildly amused. :-) Are we still talking about adding some numbers and then subtracting that total from another number, or is there more involved? I'm just thinking that by the time you fire up Quicken, you probably could be done already. Quicken is always running here. I don't have to fire it up. |
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Creating personal data/special folders
On Fri, 22 May 2015 10:09:30 -0500, Char Jackson
wrote: On Fri, 22 May 2015 07:36:41 -0700, "Ken Blake, MVP" wrote: On Fri, 22 May 2015 11:51:37 +0100, mechanic wrote: On Thu, 21 May 2015 13:13:22 -0700, Ken Blake, MVP wrote: On Thu, 21 May 2015 20:05:28 +0100, mechanic wrote: On Thu, 21 May 2015 09:22:10 -0400, Mayayana wrote: Which is all to say that the file system is *so* adaptable and flexible that I don't see why anyone who actually uses it would pay attention to "My *" folders or libraries. They don't call them "My" anything in Win8 Sorry, but that's not correct. My Music, My Pictures, and My Videos are sub-folders of Documents. On here they aren't. Then there's something strange about your computer. On my Win 7 system, My Documents, My Music, My Pictures, and My Videos are all peers of each other, residing at the same level in the hierarchy. I can't remember what it was like in Windows 7. I was responding to his post about Windows 8. On my Win 8 system, they are also peers of each other, but none of the four have the "My" prefix. Are we different? Apparently so. |
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Creating personal data/special folders
On Fri, 22 May 2015 09:03:41 -0700, Ken Blake, MVP wrote:
On my Win 8 system, they are also peers of each other, but none of the four have the "My" prefix. Are we different? Apparently so. Are you sure you have Windows 8/8.1 Ken? |
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Creating personal data/special folders
On Fri, 22 May 2015 23:01:37 +0100, mechanic
wrote: On Fri, 22 May 2015 09:03:41 -0700, Ken Blake, MVP wrote: On my Win 8 system, they are also peers of each other, but none of the four have the "My" prefix. Are we different? Apparently so. Are you sure you have Windows 8/8.1 Ken? Yes, absolutely sure--8.1. On *both* machines here. |
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Creating personal data/special folders
On Fri, 22 May 2015 16:56:29 -0700, "Ken Blake, MVP"
wrote: On Fri, 22 May 2015 23:01:37 +0100, mechanic wrote: On Fri, 22 May 2015 09:03:41 -0700, Ken Blake, MVP wrote: On my Win 8 system, they are also peers of each other, but none of the four have the "My" prefix. Are we different? Apparently so. Are you sure you have Windows 8/8.1 Ken? Yes, absolutely sure--8.1. On *both* machines here. Did you do an in place upgrade from Win 7? Maybe the previous directory structure was maintained across the upgrade. |
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Creating personal data/special folders
On Sat, 23 May 2015 00:53:28 -0500, Char Jackson
wrote: On Fri, 22 May 2015 16:56:29 -0700, "Ken Blake, MVP" wrote: On Fri, 22 May 2015 23:01:37 +0100, mechanic wrote: On Fri, 22 May 2015 09:03:41 -0700, Ken Blake, MVP wrote: On my Win 8 system, they are also peers of each other, but none of the four have the "My" prefix. Are we different? Apparently so. Are you sure you have Windows 8/8.1 Ken? Yes, absolutely sure--8.1. On *both* machines here. Did you do an in place upgrade from Win 7? Maybe the previous directory structure was maintained across the upgrade. On my machine, yes, it was upgraded from 7. But on my wife's machine, which is a one-week old inexpensive Dell, delivered with 8.1 installed, no. And she's running Classic Shell on it, not Start8. |
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Creating personal data/special folders
On Sat, 23 May 2015 07:01:01 -0700, "Ken Blake, MVP"
wrote: On Sat, 23 May 2015 00:53:28 -0500, Char Jackson wrote: On Fri, 22 May 2015 16:56:29 -0700, "Ken Blake, MVP" wrote: On Fri, 22 May 2015 23:01:37 +0100, mechanic wrote: On Fri, 22 May 2015 09:03:41 -0700, Ken Blake, MVP wrote: On my Win 8 system, they are also peers of each other, but none of the four have the "My" prefix. Are we different? Apparently so. Are you sure you have Windows 8/8.1 Ken? Yes, absolutely sure--8.1. On *both* machines here. Did you do an in place upgrade from Win 7? Maybe the previous directory structure was maintained across the upgrade. On my machine, yes, it was upgraded from 7. Thanks. I *think* that explains why you have the Win 7 directory structure, (the "My" prefixes), that the rest of us don't have, but I think you also said that My Music, My Pictures, and My Videos reside *within* My Documents, which is a second, unexplained, difference. They should be alongside, not within. But on my wife's machine, which is a one-week old inexpensive Dell, delivered with 8.1 installed, no. And she's running Classic Shell on it, not Start8. I can't explain that one. I, too, have a Dell laptop, delivered with Win 8 and upgraded to 8.1 by me, and it has the proper Win 8 directory structure where none of those 4 folders have the "My" prefix and none of them reside below Documents. |
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Creating personal data/special folders
On 5/23/15 7:12 AM, Wolf K wrote:
On 2015-05-20 4:46 PM, Paul wrote: Ken Springer wrote: Cross posted to 4 groups, as it probably applies to all these versions of Windows. Probably applies to older ones and Windows 10, but I don't follow those groups. I've never used this "system" as created by MS. It simply doesn't offer a categorization/organization method/means that makes sense to me. I know a lot of people have no problems with this method, which is perfectly OK. I'm currently resurrecting a Vista system for donation, and as I was relocating the personal data folders from the boot partition to another partition, it suddenly occurred to me... Why can't I create my own special folders? I started experimenting on the Vista system, and all went well until I relocated the folder I created. No can do. I can put the folder somewhere else manually, but it won't show up in the personal folders area. I'm still looking, but I found an article relating to Win 7 about doing this, and apparently I need to create a "symbolic link" somehow, using an elevated command windows. I know nothing about symbolic links, so will have to start researching this. But I was wondering if anyone knows of a GUI utility that will do all of this for me rather than a command line operation. Ideally, it would insert itself into the OS in some manner, rather like the Add Print Directory fix you can get from MS. And does anyone know of a really simple article on symbolic links that I can start from? It would also be nice if I could add selected folders I create, or one of the default folders, to the Start Menu. Thanks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolic_link "Windows symbolic link Main article: NTFS symbolic link Windows Vista and later support symbolic links for both files and directories with the command line utility mklink Unlike junction points, a symbolic link can also point to a file or remote Server Message Block (SMB) network path. Additionally, the NTFS symbolic link implementation provides full support for cross-filesystem links. However, the functionality enabling cross-host symbolic links requires that the remote system also support them, which effectively limits their support to Windows Vista and later Windows operating systems." [Etc] Seeing that this thread as become inordinately long, I checked the OP. Here's my take on his plaintive plea. Just make shortcuts. A shortcut is a symbolic link. Make as many as you want, wherever you want. Make a folder of shortcuts, and make a shortcut for it. Etc. The symbolic link as described is for access to other computers. There are simpler ways of doing that once the computer is part of a network such as Workgroup or Homegroup. But that's up to whoever receives the donated computer. It seems I've misled folks unintentionally, and I apologize for that. The idea of adding personal folders was never intended to be for any computer I donate. It's for my purposes and use, as were all the library discussions I've had here. I've got a brother-in-law and a nephew I'd pass the info to, but that's about all. G I _strongly_ second Paul's philosophy section. Any computer you donate should basically be in As Delivered condition. You can add a few freebies, such as Firefox or Classic Media Player, but that's as far I would go. Remember the days of Win 95 and 98, when a computer came with some basic software installed? Such as MS Works, Media Center, etc.? As most of these folks can't afford a computer, it's fairly logical they can't afford commercial software. So I install free stuff, like WPS Office (formerly Kingsoft), VideoLAN, free AV usually Avira, etc. Since I'm supplying the monitor, I change the resolution for the best display the monitor can provide. Adjust icon spacing, etc. as needed, different wallpaper (just for the fun of it, and it helps me remember which account I'm in. LOL) Enable Clear Type. I've not looked, but I suspect the settings of new computers are pretty much what I end up having when done. I mean, would you really want a computer with 800 X 600 screen resolution. :-) I set up basic accounts because of the malware issues these days, but a tutorial of why it's done and how to properly use them is supplied with the computer. Likewise for the printer I supply. The most radical thing I do is partition the hard drive, and move the data storage to the new partition. Relocating those personal data files LOL And the new owners get instructions on never putting files on C:\. LOL I probably spend more time writing the documentation than everything else, as no two systems are identical. And I use the software installed on the computer to give the new owners an inkling of what they can actually accomplish with what they've just received, other than surfing and email. -- Ken Mac OS X 10.8.5 Firefox 36.0.4 Thunderbird 31.5 "My brain is like lightning, a quick flash and it's gone!" |
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Creating personal data/special folders
On 5/23/2015 12:53 AM, Char Jackson wrote:
On Fri, 22 May 2015 16:56:29 -0700, "Ken Blake, MVP" wrote: On Fri, 22 May 2015 23:01:37 +0100, mechanic wrote: On Fri, 22 May 2015 09:03:41 -0700, Ken Blake, MVP wrote: On my Win 8 system, they are also peers of each other, but none of the four have the "My" prefix. Are we different? Apparently so. Are you sure you have Windows 8/8.1 Ken? Yes, absolutely sure--8.1. On *both* machines here. Did you do an in place upgrade from Win 7? Maybe the previous directory structure was maintained across the upgrade. In my case I did a clean install on an SSD. Regards, Rene |