Using shortcuts instead of folders?

[wolfger]

Hi everybody. I'm new to XP after using Linux for a few years (my
gaming addiction got the better of me), and I have a huge gripe that
I'm hoping somebody can help me with. All my pictures are on a seperate
hard drive from the operating system. Rather than suffer the headache
of constantly navigating to the other drive, I decided to remove the
"My Pictures" folder in "My Documents" and insert a "My Pictures"
shortcut to the folder containing my pictures on the other drive.
Problem is, this doesn't work at all. When I installed Picasa, it
didn't see a "My Pictures" folder, and created one. So now I have two
objects (a folder and a shortcut to a folder) both named "My Pictures"!
Holy confusion, Batman! I hate to say it (and sound trollish), but what
I attempted to do was a simple and standard procedure under any other
OS. Why is XP giving me a hassle?

Also, I can't seem to make a shortcut to a drive, only to a folder. Any
way around that?

 

[Brian A]

Hi everybody. I'm new to XP after using Linux for a few years (my
gaming addiction got the better of me), and I have a huge gripe that
I'm hoping somebody can help me with. All my pictures are on a seperate
hard drive from the operating system. Rather than suffer the headache
of constantly navigating to the other drive, I decided to remove the
"My Pictures" folder in "My Documents" and insert a "My Pictures"
shortcut to the folder containing my pictures on the other drive.
Problem is, this doesn't work at all. When I installed Picasa, it
didn't see a "My Pictures" folder, and created one. So now I have two
objects (a folder and a shortcut to a folder) both named "My Pictures"!

Yup, that's what happens when you delete the MyPictures folder, it gets recreated.
How are you creating the shortcut(s)?
As long as the path of the shortcut has the correct path to the folder where your
files are at it should open that folder.

Holy confusion, Batman! I hate to say it (and sound trollish), but what
I attempted to do was a simple and standard procedure under any other
OS. Why is XP giving me a hassle?

Also, I can't seem to make a shortcut to a drive, only to a folder. Any
way around that?

You can create a shortcut to a drive the same as any folder/file.
Right click an empty area.
Click New > Shortcut in the popup menu.
Click Browse > Drive you want a shortcut to.
Click OK > Next > Finish.


--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

 

[wolfger]

Yup, that's what happens when you delete the MyPictures folder, it gets recreated.
How are you creating the shortcut(s)?

Right click on destination folder, send to desktop, then move shortcut
from desktop to My Documents and rename.

As long as the path of the shortcut has the correct path to the folder where your
files are at it should open that folder.

It does if I manually double click on it, but no programs (Picasa,
Azureus, etc) recognize the shortcuts. They create identically named
folders.

 

[wolfger]

Rather than creating a shortcut to a My Pictures folder on another drive,
why not simply point the systems folder My Documents\My Pictures (which is
itself more or less a shortcut) to the folder on the other drive?

Because I don't know how. Clicking properties shows the location
it's pointing to, but I can't alter that.

The *easy*
way to do this is to download and install the Microsoft PowerToy TweakUI from
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx and
install it.

Thanks. I'll give that a try.

 

[wolfger]

Thanks. I'll give that a try.

That worked great for existing "Special Folders"... Now is there a way
I can create new ones? I didn't have much time this morning to explore
the power toys, but there wasn't anything obvious.