Best way to separate OS/programs from user data?

Hi!
By default user accounts seems to be created on the same partition as where
the operating system resides. I would like to move all my user accounts as
well as the "public" account/folder permanently to another partition. I seem
to have successfully moved all the user accounts by using the "location" tab
on each and every sub folder, but what about the "public" account/folder? How
do I permanently move the "public" account/folder and/or its sub folders?

Danneman

Print this message or copy/paste the contents of this message into Notepad
and print it from there.

To move the Public folder, follow these steps.

1. Create a new folder called "Public" in the location where you want the
folder moved to.

2. Copy all of the sub-folders in the C:\Users\Public folder. (Do not copy
the Public parent folder)Paste these sub-folders into the folder you just
created at the new location.

3. Go to Start and type regedit in the Program section, right click
Regedit.exe and
select the "Run As Administrator" option. This will open the registry
editor.
Navigate to the following location.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

When you click the ProfileList folder, look in the right side pane and you
will see a value called "Public". Double click this value. In the "Value
data" section, you should see the path,

%SystemDrive%\Users\Public

(This translates to C:\Users\Public on an installation where Vista is
installed on the C: drive)

Change this path to the location where the new Public folder you created in
Step 1 is located.

Example: If you created the new Public folder on the D: drive, the path
would be D:\Public.

Press OK and exit the registry editor.

Reboot the system.

--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User


"danneman" <danneman@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:7B73DCE9-A168-4D37-AFA5-87709618F5FC@microsoft.com...
> Hi!
> By default user accounts seems to be created on the same partition as
> where
> the operating system resides. I would like to move all my user accounts as
> well as the "public" account/folder permanently to another partition. I
> seem
> to have successfully moved all the user accounts by using the "location"
> tab
> on each and every sub folder, but what about the "public" account/folder?
> How
> do I permanently move the "public" account/folder and/or its sub folders?
>

Thank you for your quick response, it seems to work just fine. However, I
have one more question. How do I remove the old Public folder? As it seems,
I'm lacking the permissions for this operation. I have tried removing the
folder from an explorer started as administrator but with no success.

Regards,
Danneman

On Wed, 8 Aug 2007 13:08:41 -0700, "Ronnie Vernon MVP"
>Danneman

>To move the Public folder, follow these steps.

>1. Create a new folder called "Public" in the location where you want the
>folder moved to.

>2. Copy all of the sub-folders in the C:\Users\Public folder. (Do not copy
>the Public parent folder)Paste these sub-folders into the folder you just
>created at the new location.

>3. Go to Start and type regedit in the Program section, right click
>Regedit.exe and select "Run As Administrator"
>Navigate to the following location.
>
>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
>
>When you click the ProfileList folder, look in the right side pane and you
>will see a value called "Public". Double click this value. In the "Value
>data" section, you should see the path,
>
>%SystemDrive%\Users\Public
>
>Change this path to the location where the new Public folder you created in
>Step 1 is located.

Fine, but that still leaves the user account folders where they are.

The way I'd move those is as follows:

1) Create a Users on target drive, with per-user subdirs

2) Within each user account subdir, create the following:
Desktop
Documents
Music
Pictures
Videos
Downloads

3) Now navigate into C:\Users, then each user subtree

4) Copy contents of each (2) item to target; Yes on Desktop.ini

5) Rt-click each item in C:\Users subtree (i.e. the source)

6) Click the Location tab, point that to new (2) location

As you'll notice, this does not move all of the contents of the User
subtree (which may not be practical). You may also have to dip in and
out of various user accounts to get this done, due to permissions
issues etc., and click Yes to a few UAC challenges, etc.



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