Folder changes under Win7

[Mychael]

So I have to put up with them on my desktop then?

 

[davehc]

As the clip says, They are system files. You can choose to hide them in the explorer view options. It serves no usefuil purpose to be able to see system files anyway.
But. I do have them visible, as soon as I am able to get to customisation on a new install. First thing I do then is delete the desktop inis. So far I have not noticed any problems.

 

[TrainableMan]

You can make them hidden if you go to Windows Explorer ... Organize ... Folder and Search Options ... View Tab ... I think it is, Select "Don't show hidden files, folders, or drives" but if that doesn't hide it then it is "Hide protected Operationg System files (Recommended)".

Personally I don't want either of those items selected so I simply delete it every time it appears on the desktop.

 

[TrainableMan]

Yoda, Why haven't I ended up with this boot partition? To my knowledge I didn't do anything special.

This partition seems pretty stupid on Microsoft's part, why would anyone want to waste a 100MB partition if it works just as well without it?

 

[Nibiru2012]

Quotes from various websites regarding the 100MB partition:

It's reserved and MUST remain. MS says so.

Actually, it can be avoided entirely by pre-partitioning and pre-formatting your drive. Deleting it is a very bad idea because the partition does not use the standard sector zoning format. When deleted with the partition tool (which does not support non-standard partition type) the Partition Table will be corrupted.

In other words, if you don't want it there, don't let Windows 7 do it for you and it won't be created. If it is there, leave it alone.

It contains bootable files to boot your computer in recovery mode. I'm sure you could delete it but that ability would be lost.

It contains boot files and recovery info. If you delete it you will no longer be able to boot you computer. If you want to see what's in there you need to go to Disk Management and give it a letter. It will then appear in explorer.

Here's an interesting tidbit from the MSFN website:

If you pre-partition, Win7 won't create the 200MB (or, 100MB in later builds) partition. However, adding bitlocker later will be more of a pain, for one of the downsides. However, if you never plan on bitlocker for your machine, nor plan on booting with an EFI bios (and you'd know already if you were or not), you don't absolutely need it (the boot data can be stored on the same partition as Windows, but recovery may be harder later if something bad were to happen to the filesystem of the root partition).

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Personally I have never had issues with it and leave it alone. Some users get really bent out of shape over this one little partition.

The only reason to have an issue is if you want 3 usable partitions in addition to the Windows 7 partition on the same hard drive. I use only 1 usable partions besides the Windows 7 partition on my primary hard drive.

This is my humble opinion here and to quote Shakespeare, this is really "Much Ado About Nothing".

 

[Elmer BeFuddled]

Personally I don't want either of those items selected so I simply delete it every time it appears on the desktop.

Snap!
That way I still see all hidden stuff.

 

[Nibiru2012]

So I have to put up with them on my desktop then?

I am somewhat amused by this because NEVER ONCE have I ever had this icon show up on my desktop after a fresh install of Windows 7.

I wonder to myself... "Self? What are these others doing during the install that causes this to show up on the desktop?"

 

[yodap]

TM, what Nibs said. I don't mess with it either.

I guess early on with the betas and all, I read a lot of stuff about people having install trouble. To this day I install with all other hdd's removed or disconnected and a raw drive that I let W7 format. I've never had a problem and all the partitioning can be done later. If I ever need to install on a laptop, I'll have to adapt.

I have never seen the desktop.ini file either. What are those knuckleheads doing Nibs?

 

[TrainableMan]

Nibs, that explains why I never get the extra partition - I always prepartition & format the drive. But I appreciate knowing why that is a good procedure. I personally detest extra drive letters for no good reason ... if I ever use Bit Locker I'll deal but that is better than dealing with an annoying drive letter and lost harddrive space forever.

As for the desktop.ini, you never would see it on a fresh install; not until you go to Windows Explorer Folder and Search Options and check the Show hidden files, folders and drives because it is hidden by default on install.

 

[TrainableMan]

TM, what Nibs said. I don't mess with it either.

If I ever saw it, I would reformat/partition and start over because that extra drive letter in windows explorer and lost HD space would annoy the heck out of me.

 

[yodap]

If I ever saw it, I would reformat/partition and start over

Well as I said earlier, I hide the partition by removing the drive letter. I have 3 parts on the W7 drive and I have room for 1 more. I'm not the type that needs to put docs on 1 part and music on another, videos on another etc. And for my aging brain, naming them instead of worrying about drive letters being in order, is easier for me.

To me the greatest thing about W7 is it's customize-ability so people are going to things in different ways.

 

[Nibiru2012]

If I ever saw it, I would reformat/partition and start over because that extra drive letter in windows explorer and lost HD space would annoy the heck out of me.

ARRRRGGGGHHHHHH! AAAaaaaahhhhhhh! I've fallen and I can't get up! LOL!

It DOESN'T give you an extra drive letter! EVER! Only if you CHOOSE to do so.

A 100 MB partition on a 500GB hard drive is just a "drop in the bucket", or .0002% hard drive usage!

 

[TrainableMan]

It DOESN'T give you an extra drive letter! EVER! Only if you CHOOSE to do so.

Well that's good, I guess, if all you have looking at the drive is W7.

But Mychael and others with multiple OSes installed may see them it when they boot to another OS.

You don't have issue with it, that's fine; I'm glad it didn't happen to me because I would have (even without an assigned drive letter).

 

[Mychael]

Yeah it does not take up enough space to matter. I was curious what it was doing though. I can cope.
Call me old fashioned but in the little bit of playing I've done so far I gotta say I prefer the XP style for file management.
I'm sure there are heaps of tweaks and fine tuning I can do and I'll be asking lots of questions but you know (and sorry if I annoy anyone with this) My very first impression of how Win 7 looked and acted was it was a bit like a MAC o/s but not as good.

 

[TrainableMan]

I gotta say I prefer the XP style for file management.

Do you mean the Windows Explorer interface? the start menu? taskbar?

The taskbar you can restore quicklaunch & turn on show all icons in the notification area to get that back to looking normal but the other two you either need to use replacements for or get used to.

 

[Mychael]

Startbar a little but I can do more tweaking in 7 yet. The explorer interface more.
As an example and it might just be unfamiliarity, I run a program (which works fine in 7) called 'howies quick screen capture".
It runs in the back ground and you click your hotkey and it takes and saves an image of your active screen. I set it's destination to "c" documents but i cannot find it. If I search for it in the search bar it comes up and I can view it but it does not show the path of where it actually is.
Bit hard to describe when I'm typing this in XP so cannot "see" what I mean but if I try to access folders in one way by expanding the "C' drive it says I'm denied access. Sorry bit vague I should just start a new thread when I'm in 7.
Basically I think I prefer managing all my folders myself rather then letting the system do it but maybe it's all settings.

 

[TrainableMan]

I'm well familiar with denied access. Yes by default your own documents folders are off limits to you except via libraries. You may as well install Take Ownership now; you're going to want it.

In windows explorer search under Document ... My Documents. Also in the results, go up to the column headings, right in the row where it says Name, Type, Size etc and right-click. Put a check mark next to "Folder path" to add it to the columns displayed (may have to look in MORE to find it).

 

[Mychael]

I'll have a play tomorrow night. Currently I'm only loading 7 to get the feel for it.
I've been loading programs in with some more still to go but not doing any real work with it as yet.
I want to be fully comfortable with it before I begin to use it for downloading mail , saving files etc.