file/folder architecture

Jon Light (deceased) · Post by **Jon Light (deceased)** » 23 Apr 2006 10:47 am

Windows XP home----

Whenever I want to save something to hard drive the system wants to default to C:\documents and settings\my music, my pictures, my files, etc. My old method, carried over from w95 is to create a new folder C:\sound bites, C:\my stuff, etc.
Is there anything about the XP system that is more efficient--that is, am I bogging down the computer in any way by creating this filing structure and not using the structure Windows is prompting me to use or could the computer care less....?

My system gets real slow sometimes in spite of over a meg of Ram is why I'm asking---it sometimes pauses for 20 seconds before opening one of these folders.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 23 Apr 2006 10:56 am

It doesnt care where it stores the data. It has default locations but you can specify where to save the data, you don't have to save it to the Windows' default locations. Some programs will even let you change the default to whatever you want in the user options. Some others, such as downloading will default to the last folder it was "pointed" to.

e.g. I have C:\Music for my music files and I have C:\Downloads for whatever I download.
I do use the My Documents for most of my data files (e.g. MS Word, Excel, Roxio Label creator files, My Pictures, etc).

Jon Light (deceased) · Post by **Jon Light (deceased)** » 23 Apr 2006 11:07 am

That's what I figured. Thanks, Jack.

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 23 Apr 2006 11:12 am

My system gets real slow sometimes in spite of over a meg of Ram is why I'm asking---it sometimes pauses for 20 seconds before opening one of these folders.

Jon;
Do you have the thumbnails view set for these folders? If so, that will slow the loading of the folder's contents. Try switching to List or Details instead, then close and re-open the folders in question and see if that speeds up their drawing time.

If it's not the folder view options that slowing them down it might be an issue with verclsid.exe. Perform the three finger salute and click on the Processes tab. Look for a process named verclsid.exe. If it is listed hightlight it, then click on the Terminate Process button. See if that allows the folders to display faster. If it does you may have an Explorer infector onboard, embedding itself into Explorer.exe, during the login process.

Search for files with these names:

nail.exe
svcproc.exe
desktop.exe

If any or all are present report back to me.

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Jon Light (deceased) · Post by **Jon Light (deceased)** » 23 Apr 2006 11:44 am

Negative on all of the above, Wiz, except for: Googledesktop.exe which I assume to be related to Google Desktop Search which, although it's a hip application I have always wondered about. Seems kind of invasive.

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 23 Apr 2006 4:08 pm

Every user on a Windows XP system has his own My Documents folder. It's conceptually like the user home directory in Unix, or the "b0b" folder on my Mac.

The idea is to keep the user away from direct interaction with system files on the disk. You shouldn't have to think about drive letters and such, unless you're doing system-level tasks. In theory, anyway.

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Roy Ayres · Post by **Roy Ayres** » 23 Apr 2006 9:12 pm

I make a master folder named "Data" under which I make separate sub-folders such as "My Documents", "My Music", "My Pictures", "Downloads", etc. This way, you can make a full backup of your entire computer, then as you add or modify your data, you can backup your Data folder very quickly on a frequent basis. You only have to repeat the full backup when you add a new program. Great time saver. In fact, my wife and I both have master data folders labeled as "Laurie's Data" and Roy's Data" so that we each have control of our individual data folder backups.

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[This message was edited by Roy Ayres on 23 April 2006 at 10:17 PM.]

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 24 Apr 2006 2:44 pm

Windows XP does that automatically. Each user has his/her own "My Documents" folder. When you log in, you don't see the other person's "My Documents" - you only see your own.

"My Pictures", "My Music", etc. are all sub-folders under "My Documents".

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<img align=left src="http://b0b.com/b0bxicon.gif" border="0"> Bobby Lee
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System Administrator 
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