How to change the User Profile Path in Vista RC1

Hi Folks...

I'm currently using Vista RC1, and while it rocks, I'm still searching a simple way to do a really simple thing: Change the User profile Path!

As default, the profile path is stored like:
C:\Users\Rafael

It's stored in the system drive, where Windows is installed, wich is just undesirable. I like to move the profile path to another drive, with more space and wich I can use as a backup if I need to format and re-install Windows in the main drive (C:), so the change would look like this:
D:\Users\Rafael

In previous versions, I used to change the paths one-by-one, either by Shell (My Documents for example) or via Power Toys (Desktop, Favorites, etc), wich is a bunch of work.

Vista introduces a really great new folder structure under the User Profile Path, I would like to move the whole folder to a new location! I bet there's a simple way to do this!!

Can you help me?

Regards,
Rafa®

I don't know where to do this offhand, but I do know that a powertoy for WinXP was created for this (among other things).  It might require something like that...

Rafael wrote:

Vista introduces a really great new folder structure under the User Profile Path, I would like to move the whole folder to a new location! I bet there's a simple way to do this!!

I did the same thing to my XP installation, I guess you do the same thing with Vista.

Create an unattended installation file, you'll find a field that lets you set the profile directory, change it from "%systemdrive%\Users" to "D:\Users" (just make sure you've got a D:\ drive set-up (formatted, partioned, and recognised by setup) before installing.

Well, you can accomplish that during the installation, but how can I do that after the system already been installed?

Thanks W3bbo...
Rafa®

Rafael wrote:



Well, you can accomplish that during the installation, but how can I do that after the system already been installed?

Thanks W3bbo...
Rafa®

Oh, well in XP there's a Registry hack you can do, but I don't recommend doing it, since you can easily make your system a paperweight without another machine to edit your registry files in case you b0rk up.

Here's how:
Start>[User Name]
right click on a folder
click properties
click on the "location" tab.
type in a new location.
do that for all folders in your user folder.

I wish there was an option that just moved everything, but this solution is pretty good anyway.

Well, this works fine... and with the subfolders...

I think it could be a good chance for us to request a way to change the entirely path up to next version! If you can each of the subfolders, it's more convenient to can change the whole folder structure, and I'm pretty that it's a easy feature to put into next build...

What you guys think about? MS?

Regards...

Rafael wrote:

Well, this works fine... and with the subfolders...

I think it could be a good chance for us to request a way to change the entirely path up to next version! If you can each of the subfolders, it's more convenient to can change the whole folder structure, and I'm pretty that it's a easy feature to put into next build...

What you guys think about? MS?

Regards...

I totally agree with you, Rafael. There should absolutely be a way to change the Users-folder location after install, for those of us who wants to keep our data on a separate partition.

Also, at the moment, I have found no way to change the location of a public folder. There is a Location-tab for each public folder, there is a text that says you can change the location. But the Vista developers obviously forgot to put in the interface for it!

Furthermore, the current implementation of relocating a personal folder doesn't seem to work well together with Indexing. For example, if I tell the Favorites-folder that it should point to Favorites in my XP-partition, the Indexer isn't intelligent enough to index that location. If I add the new favorites folder to the Index, all other users on my machine can suddenly see my very private Favorites (when performing a search using the index on another user account)! Very bad from a security perspective...

You can change the path to the individual folders by opening windows explorer, selecting your profile in the Folders pane and right-clicking on each of the folders.  For example, right click on Documents, Properties and you can change the "Location"

I redirect all of my folders to a different volume so I can reformat to a new version of Vista and quickly set it up again without having to copy a lot of things around. 

Scott

ScottOW wrote:

You can change the path to the individual folders by opening windows explorer, selecting your profile in the Folders pane and right-clicking on each of the folders.  For example, right click on Documents, Properties and you can change the "Location". 
Scott

Yes, you can redirect your own folders, but you can't redirect the folders under C:\Users\Public (although the text says you can, but you actually can't!)

Also, the indexer isn't smart enough to realize the new location of your documents. And beware on multiuser computers, when adding your documents to the index in the new location, you might expose them to all users (I don't exactly know how the indexer determines what to show to all users, what not to...)

That's the way I prefer too.

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?s=&showtopic=81968&view=findpost&p=557613

Cheers,
McoreD