Slow Computer? Move My Documents Folder to Help Speed up

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 10:19:57 EST

When Windows is installed on your computer, it places afolder named My Documents on the same drive as the Operating System, in most cases drive C:.

The My Documents folder is your own personal folder andthere is a shortcut to My Documents in your start menu, on your desktop and it isalso the default folder when you open Windows Explorer, thus making it easilyaccessible and manageable. It also has subfolders in it where you can storeyour photos, music, videos and any other personal files.

Windows creates a My Documents folder for each user on thecomputer.

However, having the C:\Documents folder and the OperatingSystem on the same hard drive is not such a good idea because the personalfiles in the C:\Documents folder is growing in size constantly while theWindows Operating System grows very little in size over a long period of time.

This has a progressively negative influence on Windows’performance. The C: Drive is going to get filled up with this personal data andyou will have to start deleting files to make more space.

The second problem that arises is it complicates backup.Your personal data needs to be backed up frequently, while the WindowsOperating System only has to be backed up once and thereafter you only need tocreate a restore point for it.

A third problem that surfaces is disk defragmenting. Havingall this ever increasing data, the Operating System and your user applicationson one drive, results in a slower defrag and may also keep your system fromdefragging at all.

It is, however, possible to move the whole My Documentsfolder if you have more than one hard drive or partition on your computer. Butmany PC's have only a single partition of their hard drive; that is, their onlyhard drive is their C: drive.

The My Documents folder can therefore not be moved, unlessyou are able to partition the existing drive. In some cases it is possible topartition the existing C: drive, if the correct settings were used when thedrive was originally formatted and the format used was NTFS and not FAT32.

Another thing is that there must be more free space on thesecond drive or partition than the size of the C:\Douments folder. To find outhow much space there is, click on My Computer and select Properties on thedrives (usually C: and D: Not the CD or DVD drive). Make a note of the free spaceavailable on each drive. Now, while still in My Computer, right-click on MyDocuments and select Properties. You should see the folder sizes shown after a while.The largest figure is the amount of disk space you will need.

Now do the following:

Click Start, and then right-click on My Documents, clickProperties, click the Target tab.

In the Target box, type the path to the folder location thatyou want, and then click OK. For example, D:\My Documents.

If the folder does not exist, the Create Message dialog boxis displayed. Click Yes to create the folder, and then click OK or click Move,click the folder in which to store your documents, and then click OK twice. Ifyou need to create a new folder, click Make New Folder. Type a name for thefolder, and then click OK twice. In the Move Documents box, click Yes to moveyour documents to the new location.

If , for any reason you would wish to restore theC:\Documents folder to its default location, follow these steps:

Click Start, and then point to My Documents. Right-click MyDocuments, and then click Properties. Click Restore Default, and then click OK.In the Move Documents box, click Yes to move your documents to the newlocation, or click No to leave your documents in the original location.

Also, if you would wish to remove the My Documents Folderfrom the Start menu, follow these steps:

Right-click Start, and then click Properties. ClickCustomize. Click the Advanced tab. In the Start menu items list, under MyDocuments, click Don't display this item, and then click OK twice. The nexttime you click Start, the My Documents folder is no longer displayed on theStart menu. This does not remove the files stored in the target location of theMy Documents folder.

Except for moving the My Documents folder to another drivethere are several other things you must keep in mind when you would like tospeed up your slow computer. You cannot completely speed up a slow computer byfixing only one of the problems on it

Computers become slower for several reasons:

- viruses and malware can damage your data and slow downyour computer.

- too many programs are installed but not used anymore whichconsume resources,

- files on the hard drive become fragmented anddisorganized,

- the Windows registry has too many unused entries,

- unused network connections slow startup,

- too many programs automatically run at startup

I have researched and tested several products over a period ofseveral months and in order for me to get our slow computer 's performance upto speed again, I made use of not less than 17 different products, each ofwhich is designed to do a certain task on the PC. Eventually we ended up using11 of these apps (all freeware) on a regular basis which keeps our PC’sperforming clean and error free.

In forthcoming articles I'll explain to you in detail, howto clear out forgotten programs, unused, unnecessary and junk files and how toclean and streamline the Windows registry.

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Slow Computer? Move My Documents Folder to Help Speed up