XP files question

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Richard

Hopefully someone can help me with this....

I have my documents in the traditional "documents & settings\ my name \ my
documents\ *.*

Is there a way to truncate the path name? I have software that will manage
my documents but the long path name causes some problems. I realize I can
just use a subdirectory in the root directory - is there any reason not to
move to the root? Any limits on files within the root or any particular
subdirectory? Can I rename a subdirectory as a drive (which would be perfect
for my use).

Thanks for any suggestions
 
Richard said:
Hopefully someone can help me with this....

I have my documents in the traditional "documents & settings\ my name \ my
documents\ *.*

Is there a way to truncate the path name? I have software that will manage
my documents but the long path name causes some problems. I realize I can
just use a subdirectory in the root directory - is there any reason not to
move to the root? Any limits on files within the root or any particular
subdirectory? Can I rename a subdirectory as a drive (which would be
perfect for my use).
Click to expand...

On XP there isn't any reason not to create a folder for this presumably
older program at the root of C:\.

Malke
 
Malke said:
On XP there isn't any reason not to create a folder for this
presumably
older program at the root of C:\.
Click to expand...
You can also use the old 8.3 naming convention (which does take a
little detective work to ferret out). Open a command prompt (Start +
Run, type: cmd). The use the old dir command with the /x keyword. For
example, use the following DOS commands to get to the root of the C:
drive and list all the folders with both their long and short names
(the ">" represents the command prompt. You do not include it when you
type the commands):
c:
dir /x *.
Click to expand...
Volume in drive C has no label.
Volume Serial Number is 7C1D-3EEA

Directory of C:\

01/14/2008 02:52 PM <DIR> DOCUME~1 Documents and
Settings
12/12/2007 08:09 PM <DIR> Drivers
12/12/2007 03:08 PM <DIR> I386
02/01/2008 12:47 PM <DIR> PROGRA~1 Program Files
02/01/2008 09:14 AM <DIR> Temp
02/08/2008 05:59 AM <DIR> WINDOWS
1 File(s) 1,024 bytes
6 Dir(s) 68,546,904,064 bytes free

On my computer, the short name for "Documents and Settings" is
"DOCUME~1".

Brian Bygland
 
Richard said:
On XP there isn't any reason not to create a folder for this
presumably older program at the root of C:\.

Malke
Click to expand...

Check it out with Explorer: "My Documents" is the same as the full path
"c:\....". It's a special system file. Simply use "My Documents";
it'll get there. Try it; experiment and play with it. The system
folder "My Documents" is nothing but a shortcut to the fully pathed
C:\Documents and ... \My documents folder.

Also, there is a very good reason to use it, unless you never bother to
back up and don't care whether you lose files or not because you never
backed anything up. By bakcing up Documents and Settings, which
includes that folder, you are backing up EVERYTHING you need w/r to your
data and program settings, to restore a catastrophic disk failure.
Help and Support has some good explanations if you care to check
there.

--
Regards,

PopRivet

Nope, not going to Vista. Why?
Simple: It offers me nothing I need nor
even want that I don't already have.
So, why switch? NOT gonna happen.
 
Thanks all for the advice. I will experiment and see what is the best idea.

I also use the software (which is current) on my laptop and want to use the
same structure one each (which was why I was hoping tobe able to rename a
subdirectory as a drive - so both versions of the software would look to the
same logical place on each machine.

Any further ideas are appreciated.
 
Richard said:
Hopefully someone can help me with this....

I have my documents in the traditional "documents & settings\ my name \ my
documents\ *.*

Is there a way to truncate the path name? I have software that will manage
my documents but the long path name causes some problems. I realize I can
just use a subdirectory in the root directory - is there any reason not to
move to the root? Any limits on files within the root or any particular
subdirectory? Can I rename a subdirectory as a drive (which would be perfect
for my use).

Thanks for any suggestions
Click to expand...

Try using standard Windows environment variables:
"%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%\My Documents\*.*"

OR, if your documents will ALWAYS be on drive C:
"C:%HOMEPATH%\My Documents\*.*"

You may even be able to set a shorter custom variable name in your
Windows operating system - see "Creating Variables on Windows" in the
web page at http://www.wilsonmar.com/1envvars.htm
 
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