Q: I have two questions on Windows Vista SP1 and Windows 7. When I install portable applications I do the following in Windows XP SP2: I go to “ALL USERS” folder, click on folder “OWNER”, “START MENU” folder, click “PROGRAMS” folder and I create a new folder called UTILITIES (as this is where I will be installing ccleaner.exe), I extract/install the program in this UTILITIES folder.
I will be installing a lot of portable applications on my new laptop and would like to know how to do the above in Windows Vista and Windows 7. I have no idea which folder to go into in order to this. The reason I create folders, I like to keep all utilities such as registry cleaners, system cleaners under one folder. I have the same for programs like Scribus, Inkscape, these I keep under a folder called Web Software.
The Second question, the folder “Documents” is where one can store all data files, is that correct? I hope that in future you will provide a complete issue on all programs for Windows 7 in 64-bit, as I would like to install all 64-bit programs on this computer.
A: The process for adding folders to the Start menu is broadly similar in Vista and Windows 7. Right-click on the Start button and select Explore, this will show you the Programs folder and any other items that are pinned to the menu. You can add sub-folders and portable applications to this folder just as you did in XP.
The Documents folder works slightly differently in Vista. In XP My Documents contained sub-folders for music, pictures, videos, etc. In Vista these are one level higher up within the user’s personal folder so the Documents folder holds only office-type files and Music and Pictures folders are alongside it at the same level. Windows 7 takes things a step further by introducing the Libraries feature, this allows you to group together folders holding similar data regardless of where they’re located on the hard drive. You can give each library a default save location so that new files dragged into the library pane are saved in a particular folder. When you access a library you can see all the files it contains as if they were in one place even if they’re actually stored in different folders or on a different partition.
Windows 7’s Libraries feature means that you don’t need to know where folders are stored
Originally featured in PCU121
