[JayScore]

Hola,

I've gone back to June 05 on this board, and not found it. I've also seached long on the net, and only found the question but no solutions.

How can I permanently delete My Documents from the left pane of Explorer (XP)?

Preferably, I like to remove all references to it forever, everywhere. I've never used it, ever. I store none of my own files on C:. I always have had two hard disks, and only ever store my own files on D:.

My Docs was a nuisance on 98, but it's so in-your-face on XP, and so sticky. Drives me crazy. I do wonder if there's an ulterior motive - a common, readily accessible place that hackers can go straight to to see what you're doing, and let Bill know, perhaps. There's got to be a reason for its forceful, sticky presence.

And which insulting, condescending, twerp at Microsoft thought we couldn't create our own directory with that name, and those useless sub-directories? Shows what they think of us, eh. duh!

[maxXPsoft]

this might help although it will still be there it doesn't default there after running it.
regsvr32 /u /s mydocs.dll

I think actually all that My Docs mess was intended for the not so savvy users who don't know what Windows Explorer is. I totally agree as far as keep your stuff on a separate drive and have all the programs save there instead. Makes for a good backup if you was to reinstall Doze just set the apps back to there again.

This post has been edited by maxXPsoft: 29 January 2007 - 05:13 AM

[jondercik]

My Documents was put in place for the less savy people to have any easy to remember location to storee their documents. With Active Directory and Group Policy you can redirect this location to a server on the network. It will automatically sync the files between local and on the server.

[Idontwantspam]

Or, if you aren't on a domain, open the start menu, right-click "My Documents" and change the target location. All references to My Docs will go there now.

[SngBrdb]

What you need to do is to remove it from the Desktop namespace, since My Documents appears under the desktop root in Windows Explorer.

You need the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace

There is a sub-key here called {450D8FBA-AD25-11D0-98A8-0800361B1103}. If you do a lot of hacking in Windows you'll know this as the My Documents CLSID.

Rename this key, putting a '-' in front of the name. It should now be called "-{450D8FBA-AD25-11D0-98A8-0800361B1103}". Close all explorer windows and re-open Windows Explorer... My Documents should now be gone
:

I hate how MS set up Windows Explorer, too... I hack the heck out of all the namespaces... reply here if you want more namespace/CLSID info.

PS: Spammie's right, you can move the location of this folder somewhere else... mine points to C:\Documents\James. I wouldn't remove the references completely... too many applications rely on this folder to store data and settings (yeah, I hate that too). You can change each program's registry settings, but after a while it gets to be a pain. Dunno about unregistering the dll itself... sounds like an invitation to trouble

This post has been edited by SngBrdb: 29 January 2008 - 12:40 PM

[PC_LOAD_LETTER]

JayScore, on Jan 28 2007, 12:54 PM, said:

And which insulting, condescending, twerp at Microsoft thought we couldn't create our own directory with that name, and those useless sub-directories? Shows what they think of us, eh. duh!

wow you are channeling my exact thoughts the first time i saw that way way back around 95 when it was still c:\My Documents or as it was known to most of the people i knew 'c colon backslash My-Doc-U tilde one' aka c:\MYDOCU~1 (don't even get me started on the problems started by c colon backslash Prog-Ra tilde one) I guess i should be thankful they didnt get the idea to do My-Desk tilde one

we mocked win95 mercilessly. oooh look at me with 'My Computer' and 'My Documents' isnt that cute? -yeah right like id ever trust a folder made by my OS to not do something unexpected with my files.
I had files in folders on the root, folders in the root, on other drives everything was scattered around and assumed that how everyones stuff was

but then I did 6 years of phone support for a crappy ISP/PC manufacturer on systems running win 98FE,SE,ME,2K,XP but got out with only taking 1 out of scope call for a guy in thepiratebay's public beta of Longhorn before it was know as Vista. Their idea of support was if you can't fix it in 15 minutes, backup the customers files and run the restore disc(s)
49% of the people I talked to stored their files in their My Documents and nowhere else, 49% thought they stored their files in 'the modem' (which translated from user means case) but their files where actually in the "My Documents" folder. the other 2 percent knew where their stuff was and didn't want help backing it up.

I'm now the systems admin at a college and its almost creepy how easy it is to back up and migrate these peoples data. These days I'm the one that makes the call on whether to wipe out a system and reload it so it rarely happens unless their is a hardware failure/replacement involved. to grab all of a persons files all i have to do is copy the My Docs, Desktop, and Favorites folders and plunck them onto the new drive and voila! you are done.

all that said, it would be nice to be able to right click 'My Documents' and check 'Disable My Documents functionality for this user' we use a bunch of machines running DeepFreeze and have found if i leave the My Documents visible, is encourages people to save their files on the computer expecting them to still be there tomorrow and a few get angry when they realize what theyve done.

[Zxian]

geek, on Jan 29 2008, 04:31 PM, said:

all that said, it would be nice to be able to right click 'My Documents' and check 'Disable My Documents functionality for this user' we use a bunch of machines running DeepFreeze and have found if i leave the My Documents visible, is encourages people to save their files on the computer expecting them to still be there tomorrow and a few get angry when they realize what theyve done.

On a completely side note... when I had my department's computers setup with DeepFreeze, we created a second partition and mounted that within the My Documents folder. This partition was unfrozen, so the contents remained after reboots. Any files that were stupidly saved to the desktop were automatically copied to a "Recovered Files" folder within My Documents. Have a look here.

I used to hate having the My Documents folders, but I ultimately just started using them, and found that in some ways it makes things easier. You can setup the My Documents folder as a mount point for a second hard drive, so there's no worry about losing data in a format (you can even automate the mount point AFAIK).

[maxXPsoft]

we're on 2K right now at work and they tell us to not store anything on the drive, save to the Network somewhere since that is backed up even your 50+mb user folder. They ghost us back after a problem and you just point your stuff where it needs to retrieve the files.
My Docs don't have nothing

Same as my method at home using a backup drive which I burn to Dvd R/W as the need arises. In between I keep my backup WIP on a secure jump drive.

[SngBrdb]

Don't know anything about Deep Freeze, but to Microsoft's credit, they did build in folder redirection, which, for good or bad, I find is the best compromise between keeping files off the local PC and end-user lack of knowledge. It also has the benefit of having My Documents available on any machine you log on to (if all are set to use redirection).

Take IDontWantSpam's idea, right click and point to a network share. If you're on a domain, the issue is moot, you just set users up to store their profile on the server.

If you have a slow network, it can make opening docs slow, but to me that's an IT issue. On my home gigabit network, redirection is invisible.

I agree with Zxian, My Documents is just an evil necessity you have to work with. Pointing it somewhere else, either the network or a second partition, is probably the best way to deal with it.