How to move Documents and Settings folder to a new drive and make new location default?

Question

I would like to move existing Documents and Settings folder to a new drive, and also make the new location a default for all of the users profiles, so from now on, new location is where files are created. I am using Windows 2003 SP2.

Answer 1

We have looked at this before as well... We found alot of issues with doing this. Alot of programs (poorly developed ones) always look at the %systemdrive%\documents and settings directory for users. If you end up going down the route of moving your user profiles, be prepared for unexpected issues later on.

Answer 2

A little complicated after an installation of Windows.

You need to go to the registry and change all references to the documents and settings folder.

See: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/236621

Hope this helps

Answer 3

Another option would be to look at groups policy to redirect My Documents etc to another area, be it a mapped network drive or to a users home drive...

there is a lot in group policies...not sure if this xls sheet from MS will help > Here <

and > Here < is another example of folder redirect using policies

I don't use 2003 so I can not give any self examples I'm afraid

Hope that helps

Answer 4

Probably the easiest thing to do is right click on "My Documents"->Properties. Then go into the Location tab and change its location... Once this is done, it will be the default for that user (NOTE: You may have to do it for all users, if you want it done automatically for new users, then Group Policies may be the way to go). You will also need to move all the contents of your old My Documents to your new My Documents.

Hope this helps.