Have you ever heard the term “user folders” and wondered what they are? Are you aware of where they can be found on your Windows 10 computer or device?
We’ll go through what user folders like Downloads, Documents, and Music are in this article. Then we’ll teach you how to alter the location of each user folder in Windows 10. So, if you want to know how to change my Documents location? or how to change the location of your Downloads folder in Windows, keep reading:
What user folders are in Windows 10
Under “C:\Users\User name,” all recent editions of Windows build a collection of user folders for each user account. The following items are included in the collection:
- 3D Objects – This folder contains 3D files for programs like Paint 3D and Mixed Reality Portal
- Contacts – If you’re still using Windows Contacts, this is the folder where you’ll find all of your contacts’ information. Each contact has its own file with the “.contact” extension.
- Desktop – This is your desktop, which contains all of the shortcuts, files, and folders you’ve put to it.
- Downloads – If you don’t specify a different location in your usual web browser, this is the default folder where files are downloaded from the internet.
- Favorites – All Internet Explorer favorites are saved in the Favorites folder.
- Documents – by default, your documents are saved in this folder.
- Links – is used to save shortcuts from Windows Explorer‘s Favorites section in Windows 7 and File Explorer in Windows 8.1. Even though it’s still in your user folder, Windows 10 no longer uses this folder.
- Pictures – By default, all photographs are saved in the Pictures folder.
- Music – By default, all music is saved in the Music folder.
- Videos – By default, all videos are saved in the Videos folder.
- OneDrive – This is where your OneDrive files are stored if you use Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud storage service.
- Saved Games – This is the location where all games that are integrated with Windows 10 save your gameplay data so that you can pick up where you left off. Most games, however, do not use this folder to store saves, despite the fact that they should.
- Searches – This is where Windows 10 saves all of your saved searches for later use.
What’s the location of user folders in Windows 10
This is the easiest approach to get a complete list of user folders:
- Open File Explorer – Press Win + E on your keyboard at the same time, or press the File Explorer button on the taskbar.
- Go to the “C:” drive, which is normally where you installed Windows 10.
- Double-click or double-tap on the Users folder and then on your user account’s folder to open them. For example, Digital Citizen is the name of one of our user accounts, and Windows 10 is installed on the “C:” drive. As a result, we went to “C:\Users\Digital Citizen.”
When compared to previous versions of Windows operating systems, one advantage in Windows 10 is that it provides quick access to some of the most used user folders. You should see shortcuts for all of these user folders if you open File Explorer and go to This PC: Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, and Videos.
As you can see, these aren’t all of your user folders; rather, they’re the ones you’re most likely to utilize.
How to change user folder locations in Windows 10 (Documents, Downloads, Music, etc.)
It is possible to change the placement of all of these user folders using the same process. To demonstrate this technique, we’ll use the Downloads folder as an example, showing you how to relocate it to a different location so that your web browser stores the things you download there instead of the Windows 10 default location.
Go to your user’s primary folder in File Explorer. Right-click or press-and-hold the folder that you want to move to a new location and select Properties.
You can also utilize the File Explorer ribbon. Select the folder you’d like to relocate, then click or tap Properties on the Home tab.
In the Properties window, go to the Location tab for the selected folder. On your PC, you can see its present location. Tap or click Move.
A new window with the title “Select a Destination” appears.
Navigate to the new location where you wish the folder to be transferred and click or tap Select Folder.
In the Location tab, the new location is now visible. Click or touch OK to save the change.
You are prompted to relocate all existing files from the old location to the new one. We recommend that you click or touch Yes to ensure that everything is migrated and that you don’t have any trouble finding old files stored in the old place.
The files that were discovered at the old site have now been transferred. You’re done relocating the selected user folder to a new place after the process is completed.
Watch out for this mistake: Don’t move a user folder into another user folder!
Avoid making the same mistake we did in one of our failed tests, which was asking Windows 10 to relocate the Downloads folder to the Desktop. When we accomplished this, Windows 10 informed us that we would be moving the Downloads user folder to another user folder. As a result, Windows 10 will no longer be able to distinguish between the two locations, generating confusion for users and apps that use the Desktop and Downloads user folders.
Whether you receive a similar warning, choose another location and press No when asked if you are sure you want to proceed with the folder redirection. We clicked Yes, and the system became jumbled up, with the Downloads user folder referring to the same location as the Desktop folder. We had no convenient way of separating the two folders, and File Explorer didn’t even show the Downloads folder.
The lesson here is to avoid transferring a user folder to a place that is already in use by another user folder. Make sure it’s in a location where it won’t be overwritten by another user folder.
In this video, we are gonna show you how to change the locations of user folder in Windows 10:
Did you change user folder locations on your Windows 10 PC?
As you can see, moving user folders around in Windows 10 is a breeze. Whether you wanted to modify the position of your Documents folder or the location of your Downloads folder in Windows 10, you now know how to do it. Our advise is to transfer these folders to partitions that are not utilized by Windows 10 so that they are less likely to be damaged by probable re-installations of the operating system if your machine fails. Moving user folders may also help you preserve valuable storage space for apps and games that require a fast drive if you’re using a solid-state drive. It should not be a problem if your downloads and documents are stored on a slower drive.