Windows XP TechTip #9 >> Location

Having tons of files in the same drive as the OS introduces unnecessary head reads to your physical disks; consequently leading to slower computer performance.

It is advised that you put your files in a separate partition or if possible, a separate physical drive for optimum hard disk operation.

Simply put, I highly recommend changing the default "My Documents" and "Desktop" location in your machine; guessing that the bulk of your files are commonly placed in these folders.

To change the location for "My Documents", right click the "My Documents" folder then select properties. On the screen, click Move and select the folder of your choice.



To change the desktop location, load the registry editor by running "regedit". Open the "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Explorer\User Shell Folders" key and change the "Desktop" attribute to a folder of your choice.



You can also change the location of My Documents using this method.

Personally, I put my desktop and my documents in the same folder (e.g. D:\Files) so I that's:

D:\Files\Docs
D:\Files\Desktop

(assuming XP is installed in drive C:)

That's it. ^__^