Users Windows’s accounts feature is ideal for situations where different family members, students, or workers use the same machine at different times. Each account holder will turn on the machine to find her own separate, secure set of files, folders, desktop pictures, Web bookmarks, font collections, and preference settings. (Much more about this feature in Chapter 23.) In any case, now you should see the importance of the Users folder. Inside is one folder —one Personal folder—for each person who has an account on this PC. In general, standard account holders (page 716) aren’t allowed to open anybody else’s folder. Note: On page 81, you can read about libraries. Well, inside the Documents library, you’ll see Public Documents; in the Music library, you’ll see Public Music; and so on. These are nothing more than pointers to the master Public folder that you can also see here, in the Users folder. (Anything you put into a Public folder is available for inspection by anyone else with an account on your PC, or even other people on your network.)
Windows Here’s a folder that Microsoft hopes you’ll just ignore. This most hallowed folder contains Windows itself, the thousands of little files that make Windows, well, Windows. Most of these folders and files have cryptic names that appeal to cryptic people. In general, the healthiest PC is one whose Windows folder has been left alone.
Your Personal Folder Everything that makes your Windows experience your own sits inside the Local Disk (C:)ÆUsersÆ[your name] folder. This is your Personal folder, where Windows stores your preferences, documents, email, pictures, music, Web favorites, cookies (described below), and so on. You can get to it more directly by choosing your name from the top right of the Start menu. Tip: Actually, it would make a lot of sense for you to install your Personal folder’s icon in the Favorites list at the left side of every Explorer window. The easiest way to do that is to open your Personal folder (choose your name from the Start menu’s right side) and then drag the tiny icon from the left end of the address bar directly into the Favorites list.
Inside your Personal folder, you’ll find folders like these: •• Contacts. An address-book program called Windows Contacts came with Windows Vista, but Microsoft gave it the ol’ pink slip for Windows 7. All that’s left is this folder, where it used to stash the information about your social circle. The toolbar still has some buttons like New Contact and New Contact Group, but no other programs tap into whatever “cards” you make here. (Some other companies’ address-book programs can use this folder, too.) •• Desktop. When you drag an icon out of a folder or disk window and onto your desktop, it may appear to show up on the desktop. But that’s just an optical