Windows 10: Moving user's folder in Win 11

This question has been "answered" here beforehttps://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/moving-users-folder-in-win-11/6998b23a-189b-42da-9cdc-afa3deac781a...But that answer doesn't apply to Windows 11, only 10 maybe it did before; if there's one thing Microsoft is good at it's taking away functionality or moving it somewere completely different because of course they do.The official, and best way to relocate a user's data file folders is to use right-click -> Properties -> Location tab. But as of Windows 11 22H2, anyway that tab no longer exists - you only get General, Sha

:)

 

Moving user's folder in Win 11

Hi Trippap. I'm Greg, 10 years awarded Windows MVP, specializing in Installation, Performance, Troubleshooting and Activation, here to help you.

Moving User folders to another drive works the same in Windows 11 and Windows 10 and is covered in the best tutorial here:

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-move-default...

What's important to avoid misdirection is to first create a folder by the same name as the one you want to move in the target location, then right click on the shell User folder you want to move, choose the Location tab, then Move button to browse to the new location and choose the folder you created. Allow it to move the files in the folder, too.

You will know the new User folder is official because it will have the Document, Picture, Download arrow, Music note or Desktop screen icon on it and it will have a Location tab in Properties box that other folders don't have.

Feel free to ask back any questions. Based on the results you post back I may have other suggestions if necessary.

______________________________________________

Standard Disclaimer: There are links to non-Microsoft websites. The pages appear to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the sites that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the sites before you decide to download and install it.

 

Move Users Folder Location in Windows 10  

If not the best way to do that but at least the way I recommend:

• "Empty" your user profile folders as much as you can, copying documents, pics, videos, music and all other personal data from all user profiles to external HDD. As following steps require you to relocate Users folder two times, the less data is left in user profile folders, the faster the relocation process. Important: Leave system folder AppData for each profile intact, do not empty / move its content!
• Reverse the relocating, doing exactly as told in tutorial Method Two but this time relocating Users folder back to C: drive
• Shut down the PC, replace the disk where you had Users relocated
• Mount the new disk, boot to Windows, assign new disk the same drive ID letter than the old one had
• Again, do as told in Method Two, now relocating Users to new disk
• Restore the backed up personal user data from external drive to respective folders under each user profile

 

Moving user's folder in Win 11

Again, there is never a Location tab on your user Profile folder because it is not meant to move and can only be done so by hacking that often causes problems. The location tabs are on the actual shell User folders like Documents, Pictures, Downloads, Music, Desktop, etc. which is how you know they are the official shell User folder.

If you moved them into another D directory that has your User Profile folder name on it, and never had moved the User Profile folder, then the User Profile folder Tripp on D is just another folder, not the default one which likely remains at C:\Users|Tripp.

To test this see if there are any official Shell User folders remaining in the default location that have the Location Tab on them. If so then the default User Profile folder remains at C:\Users and the one copied to D is just a copy and not official. You could have just as easily copied the shell user folders to D:\Documents or D:\Pictures because the Tripp folder on D is not the official User Profile folder.

If Quicken is saving files in the default User folder location in a Documents folder that's not official because it has no Location tab, then it's because that app is hard wired to save files to that folder path whether the User folder has been moved from there or not. If it's not there, then it will create one. This often happens with the Downloads folder. When it does I just empty the unofficial Downloads folder into the location I moved it and delete the second one.

I hope this helps. I know it can get confusing so ask back any questions. I've been sorting these out almost daily in forums for over a dozen years.