Windows 7 from XP redirected My Documents folder... How to?

[Koldov]

Hi All,

 

Just retiring my Head's old XP pc and making all programs, shortcuts, favourites, desktop wallpaper, mapped drives match what was on the old PC.

 

I knew there was a redirect of the My Documents to the H:\ drive, but I'm not sure how to recreate this exactly...

 

Windows 7 obviously handles this differently as I can see in the redirected drive a 'My Music' folder and a 'My Pictures' folder from XP.

 

The icon that comes up for the Windows 7 user's files seems to relate to what XP called 'My Documents' I think, as this has the music and pictures inside, but I can't seem to redirect this and strangely enough this has a 'My Documents' folder inside.

 

So in summary:

 

XP = My Documents - My Pictures

My Music

My Recieved files

Etc.

 

7 = User Files - My Documents

My Music

My Pictures

Etc.

 

How do I match this up with what is currently redirected from XP so the move is as transparent as possible and the user can click and save as much like before as possible?

 

Hopefully this can be done on the stand alone PC and not via GPO as it's just for this one user.

 

Kol.

[tubs]

There is an option in the Group Policy redirection that "follows documents", and it will keep My Music, Pictures and Videos under "My Documents", from Micrsoft

 

"Follow the Documents folder . This option is available only for the Music , Pictures , and Videos folders. This option resolves any issues related to naming and folder structure differences between Windows 7 and Windows Vista, and earlier Windows operating systems. If you choose this option, you cannot configure any additional redirection options or policy removal options for these folders, and settings are inherited from the Documents folder. "

 

The personal folders (which is where Windows 7 groups all profile & redirected folders) points at %userprofile% and is indeed seemingly not open to be redirected to anywhere.

 

I'd suggest the "follow" is only a temporary measure, and you need to look at reorganising your user file stores.

 

You'll also need to look at editing the "libraries" to point to the correct places.

 

Also make sure you've read http://sdmsoftware.com/group-policy-blog/bugs/interesting-bug-in-grouppolicy-folder-redirection-results-in-lost-data/ so that you don't start getting empty documents folders ...

Edited September 4, 2013 by tubs