Made a mess of 'Documents'

I had a rudimentary understanding (I thought) of Libraries and junctions in Win7. I built a Win8.1 machine with an SSD for the C: drive, keeping data drives from the previous Win7 build. I'm still getting confused with the new File Explorer.

I wanted to move the Documents folder to the H: data drive, off the C: drive. I did this (I think) by right clicking the Documents folder under This PC in the navigation window, choosing Properties and then Location. I clicked Move...and chose Documents on the H: drive. I then chose to move all files to the new location.

I thought that would redirect requests by programs for a file in the default Documents folder to the Hocuments folder. Apparently I was wrong. Outlook balked.

Now I have Documents under This PC, which shows only This PC in the breadcrumb. I have Documents in C:\Users\UserName\. I have Documents in H:\Documents. When I look at Libraries in the navigation column, There is the primary Documents icon with 2 Documents icons below. Properties for the 1st shows the Library locations: as Documents. The 2nd two show the location as H:\. ARGH!! As a matter of backup, where are the files, really?

Hello Don,

No worries. You can use OPTION TWO to restore the default location of your Documents folder.

User Folders - Restore Default Location - Windows 7 Help Forums


If you like, you could do this below for libraries.

• Create a new folder at any location you want.
• Move any files you want into the new folder.
• Include the new folder into a library of your choice.
• If you like, you can also set the new folder to be the default save to location for the library as well.