Since Windows 2000, users are able to change location on several user profile folders, such as Application Data, Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Videos, Downloads, Music and Start menu.
I had an inquiry from an user, who while trying to change location of their Pictures folder, by mistake selected the whole drive C: (system drive) as location in the Properties tab.
While trying to Restore to Default or move it to another section, the process gets started, but due to existence of several hidden/system folders and sub folders on the system drive, the process fails.
In this case, there are few options, out of which none is that time effective or easy to be done. But, there is simple Registry "hack" you can perform to reset back to default settings.
Important: This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 322756 How to back up and restore the registry in Windows
With that said, and after you have done your backup (registry and the file folder content you want to move), you should do the following:
- Click Start, then type RegEdit and hit Enter;
- Registry editor will open, and then search for: Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
- Here you will find all the User folders (as mentioned at the beginning) with their respected locations.
- In the top layer of the list (just after (Default.) entry), you will find several keys who's names contain series of numbers and letters and data is representing different locations on disk where the actual folders are located.In this case we were searching for the location of the Pictures folder that was represented with Value data: %SYSTEMDRIVE%\ (as shown on the picture, marked with yellow)
Delete the line from the registry, and then find the key My Pictures, Double-click to edit and change the Value data: %USERPROFILE%\Pictures
Click OK to save, close everything and reboot;
The Pictures folder will reset to default value, and appear in its pre-defined location under User profile.
After this, you ca nrecover the data from backup in the folder and user could finalize the process of changing location of the folder on different drive. This work around will apply for any of the User folders, in case you make similar mistake.