110 OCTOBER2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE 392
WhateveryourPC,hardware, software,officeapplication
or macroissues,SimonHandbyisheretohelp
Send [email protected]
Helpfile &
Business HHel
Earlierthisyear,IbuiltmyownPC.Itworks
great,butI’mhavinganissuewiththeway
the foldersare structured. The Cdrive is an
SSD holding the Windows installation and
other programs. The Ddrive is an external
drive,which Iuse forbackup.Drive Fisa
2TB hard drive,which stores all my files,
music, pictures and other data.
Everything works OK, it just seems to be
different to how it was on my previous
computer.When Ifirst started up the new
PC, Windows created libraries on the C
drive.Ithenspent agestransferring stuff to
the Fdrive,but in the process Iseemto
have lost the libraries.
Ialso now seem to have the same files
in lots of different places.However,I’m
not sure if it is duplication or whether the
files just appear to be stored in different
locations. I’m sure there must be a
recommended waytoset things up initially,
but I’m not sure where to look. I’m also not
sure whether changing anything now will
improve things, or just get me even more
confused! Can you help?
Dave Lee
Windows’ libraries are auseful waytogroup
certain types of content that maybespread
across several locations on your computer
or network. In essence,each library is a
shortcut to other locations, so forexample
the Pictures library could include afew
different folders on your PC, plus one (or
more) from anetwork drive.
It can be aneat feature,but it’s confused
by the fact that Microsoftuses the same
names –Documents, Music, Pictures and
Video –for the primary locations storing
content on your PC. The Pictures folder is
inside the Pictures library by default, and
so on.
From your email and screenshot it seems
as though you might be talking about the
main content locations, rather than the
libraries. It looks like you’ve successfully
configured the Documents, Downloads, Music
and Pictures locations to point to folders in
the root of drive F, while Videos points to
F:/nhsda/Videos. Meanwhile you have
additional Documents, Music and Pictures
folders inside F:\nhsda, but these aren’t
configured as the main locations foreach.
We assume you might want each of
the content folders to be in the root of F.
If that’s the case,you can move Videos by
right-clicking it, choosing Properties, selecting
the Location tab,clicking Move and creating
the folder F:\Video.When you click Apply,
Windows will move the folder and any
content in it to the new location. If the
problem is that these folders don’t contain
the files you’re expecting, you might find it
within the folders in F:\nhsda –you can
simply move the files across.
If you do specifically want to use Windows
libraries, first you need to show them in
Explorer.Click on the View tab,click Options,
select the View tab,scroll to the foot of the
list, tick Show libraries and click OK. Right-click
each library and choose Properties to add or
remove locations foreach.
Save ourlibraries!
⬆You can add multiple locations to alibrary.The
appropriatecontent folder is included by default
➡RebellingagainstWindows’defaultlocationscan
leadtoconfusion
