In another thread here on the "My Documents" folder in Windows XP, I got some excellent lessons in data management...
techpatterns.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=250
Thanks particularly to jeffd.

I thought I'd split further discussions of where to put what kinds of data into its own thread.

As a preface, I should mention that I'm new to multi-user systems, and my computer experience is with DOS and Windows 9x.

It's been suggested that I install my program files in a C partition, say 10 or 12 gigs to allow for future expansion, and that I reset the default "My Documents" target to be apart from C, on the D partition, with an actual pathname something like D:\docs\rc, where rc are my initials.

First, to confirm my understanding of this... I'm assuming that if down the line I were to switch to power user mode, my user data would be kept under D:\docs\rc. The admin would have access to data in all directories, but by using this directory structure, the admin's virtual "My Documents" in Windows Explorer would be D:\docs, so all other users would show up in subdirectories of this. Is this correct, or am I making an extra assumption that isn't quite right?

For now, though, I'm starting out with myself as a single user with admin rights.

As much as possible, I want to get all of my data in one place. In migrating over to a new system, which is what I'm doing now, one of the largest chores has been locating all of the settings and ini files that various programs put all over the place, and finding out what I can move where with the updated versions I'll be installing.

I'm guessing that some Windows programs will continue to give me no control... I'm not sure... but I'd like to get an idea of what users more experienced than I consider best practices for putting...

- program ini and setting files
- hardware drivers.

Migration of fonts has taken some thinking. I've listed current installed fonts and which are actually in the Windows/fonts folder (versus which ones are there as "registry shortcuts"). I'll be saving all of my old fonts, and those that aren't included in the default install will go into a font-bin (to be located where?), and then either reinstalled by a font manager or by drag and drop. Comments? What happens with accidental duplicates when I drag and drop, which, in the case of fonts, isn't the same as either copy or move.

I assume that I can simply copy my old IE favorites (yes, I still use IE, for now) into the Windows/favorites directory and they will be operative.

I'm not sure where the new Office is going to want to put itself. I assume I'd best go through the programs after install and disable all the automation and set preferences manually.

In general, with Windows programs that tend to put their settings in with the program files, can these locations be changed afterwards, or must the final choices be made during install? I don't want to fool with the registry right now.

Often, I'm inhibited from moving settings files because there's no documentation with the program about what happens when I do move them. Are there any general rules?

Any other directories for data etc that anyone can suggest I should think about as I'm setting things up?
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Yes, you are making an assumption that isn't right. There are files, users, and permissions. Files have permisssions. Permissions grant users rights to use those files. Users also have shortcut names in windows NT systems, such as power user, user, guest, administrator, to hide this simple fact. Those shortcut name refer to groups, groups or users have permissions, but usually you work with groups. The default administrator user is a member of the administrators group by default. You can change this, but unless you made another user with admin rights, you won't be able to use your system :-) after that in terms of changing anything.

You can assign different users different permissions, but it has nothing to do with where their 'my docs' folder is located. When you install windows nt, you will always create the default 'administrator' user account. That account has full control over all permissions, files, folders, processes, etc in the computer. This simple fact is what makes default windows installs fundamentally insecure.

Along with the fact that default windows installs grant all files access from the 'everyone' group, which is the worst thing you can do. When I make a new box I go in and redo all the file and folder permissions manually. However don't do this until you know what that entails.

There are several other user/groups that are involved in the system functionality: system, network, etc. the system has to have full rights over itself. If you remove those rights the system will not work, or not work correctly. That's why MS installs it with the everyone group by default, it's easy, and that group includes all users and groups under it. This is a totally incorrect way to do it, MS is directly at fault for almost all Windows related security issues.

You can if you want change the 'administrator' user's permissions to only read. Then you would be unable to change anything in your system, but the administrator would still have the same folders, my docs, etc.

Changing the user's permission level does not change their folders. When you create the main account, administrator, you will assign that account the path to the folder you made, d:\docs\rc as their path to their documents. If you then want to create a power user account, you can also assign power user the same path to their my documents, it makes no difference what path you tell the system to use, that's what it will use. I do this frequently, where every machine on a network has an admin login for admin purposes. That user is assigned a network drive folder where all admin materials are located, so I can accesss this from any machine on the network.

Keep all your data in one place, that's the best and easiest way to do it.

Leave that stuff alone, let the system put it where it needs to. XP isn't DOS.

I've had big problems with trying to export windows 9x fonts to windows nt. Your results may vary, I don't do it anymore.

You assume correctly.

c:\program files

No, they can't be changed easily, don't bother, it's a waste of time. Decide where to install then leave it alone.

Depends on the settings files, if the settings files include paths, you'll have problems, if they are just config stuff, like dreamweaver has, just copy them into the proper directory.

Some programs have good text based settings files, others don't. Some can be dragged in, others can't.

Ok, that's enough, got to get back to work :-)
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jeffd - Thanks for helping me get up and running. I'm now on my new XP system, much faster than anything I'm used to, and much more Byzantine. I'm sure to have questions, and in fact I'm just about to post one on a new thread.
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