Thread: Simple Win 10 question...do I need these....?

Originally Posted by RossM

Trawling through the system to save a few meg of disk space seems a fools errand these days - storage is cheap.

I agree with your general sentiments Ross (and poundy's of course) but it's not about saving the space, it's about management of the the stuff that insists on being displayed, particularly in the tree. There is just too much crap cluttering things up.

Before I started using external drives I just had my folders directly onto C Drive - it keeps the pathnames as short as possible (I used to use a lot of VB code to access folders back in the day) and things are very very easy to find. I still have almost everything there except I have now moved the Music project to an external because it became *rather large* rather quickly.

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Originally Posted by RossM

While relocating some default folders to another drive is legitimate and supported by MicroSloth (for example, using the Move function in folder properties) this can cause operational problems for software that expects items in the default locations. While this should not be the case, some programmers make bad programming decisions. If you want the bast chance of a stable system, as poundy says, leave well alone.

Trawling through the system to save a few meg of disk space seems a fools errand these days - storage is cheap.

You're right Ross, storage is cheap that's why I use external HDD's for my docs and backups.
I have a C: drive of 240G
I have 62.5G of documents
I have 100G of music
I have 562G of photo's
I have 584G of videos

I have no choice but to relocate my files to another drive.

Originally Posted by Grumpy John

...My issue with OneDrive, or any cloud storage is that we have no guarantee that we will always have access to our data, or that it is safe from 3rd party eyes...

That's just a risk management issue. No one should rely on a single technology. Cloud should compliment other forms of storage, not bee seen as a single solution. You could make the same comment about your local infrastructure - no guarantee that you have not been hacked or infected resulting in 3rd parties accessing your data. No guarantee that you won't have a head crash on your disk. No guarantee that the firmware on your SSD won't screw up & corrupt your data. Life has no certainties, nor does technology - you have to manage risks. Cloud offers many benefits, but that needs to be weighed up against potential down sides. Used well, it compliments your local devices and facilities better security on a number of levels.

Why would you expect to have any service remain free? Free is not a sustainable business model - it should be obvious that you will pay one way or another. At the moment in tech, its mainly subscriptions, advertising or data collection (some times a mix of all three). With OneDrive there is a small free data allowance that MicroSloth hopes you will quickly fill & then subscribe. If you use current versions of Office (O365) you are already paying a subscription for significant bundled storage.

Originally Posted by Grumpy John

We're getting a bit off topic here and maybe FF would like to chime in and tell us to cease and desist.

Nah, s'all good.

Originally Posted by Grumpy John

My issue with OneDrive, or any cloud storage is that we have no guarantee that we will always have access to our data, or that it is safe from 3rd party eyes. Also there is no guarantee that hosting will remain free.

Absobloodylutely! I see no reason whatsoever to entrust my data to a bunch of clowns in another country....run by a clown.

I'm an original generation IT type....a COBOL dinosaur if you will. I started out in the Computer Room in the days (1976) when we called it DP (Data Processing) and we did multiple generation backups of an appropriate frequency. Old habits die hard....

These days I do backups of my data-that-can-change every Monday night: the external drive is plugged in (calendar reminder) at 7pm for an 8pm backup and unplugged at 9pm (via another reminder). It is a Solid State drive for maximum safety. That drive is not connected to the machine until the next Monday night. Every now and then I recopy the folders-that-don't-change to it. Because the drive is not attached to the machine it cannot become corrupted or ransomed (unless the ransomware is on time delay, which would seem unlikely - they're usually pretty keen to get their dough asap).

Furthermore, I have a complete duplicate of the huge music folder, and that is stored offsite (in case of theft or destruction by fire), along with a WindowsImageBackup. I also have most of it duplicated on Micro SD cards for use in my DAP. Every now and then I retrieve the backup disks and copy the new files across to them.

Originally Posted by Grumpy John

I have no choice but to relocate my files to another drive.

You should still disconnect the backup drives after the bu has finished.

Originally Posted by RossM

That's just a risk management issue. No one should rely on a single technology. Cloud should compliment other forms of storage, not bee seen as a single solution. You could make the same comment about your local infrastructure - no guarantee that you have not been hacked or infected resulting in 3rd parties accessing your data. No guarantee that you won't have a head crash on your disk. No guarantee that the firmware on your SSD won't screw up & corrupt your data. Life has no certainties, nor does technology - you have to manage risks. Cloud offers many benefits, but that needs to be weighed up against potential down sides. Used well, it compliments your local devices and facilities better security on a number of levels.

Why would you expect to have any service remain free? Free is not a sustainable business model - it should be obvious that you will pay one way or another. At the moment in tech, its mainly subscriptions, advertising or data collection (some times a mix of all three). With OneDrive there is a small free data allowance that MicroSloth hopes you will quickly fill & then subscribe. If you use current versions of Office (O365) you are already paying a subscription for significant bundled storage.

It is a risk management issue, and I want to be in control of the risk, as much as I can.
I use Acronis True Image for my backups. I backup my Docs, Music and Vids on even days at 3:00AM, I do a full backup then 9 differential backups then a full backup.
I backup my photos on odd day using the same protocol.
I backup C: drive on the 1st, 11th and 21st (unless I have done a major change or install, doing a full backup after every 3 differential backups.

The backup drive is plugged in when I go to bed and the data drives are unplugged when not in use. Also I don't use MS Office, I use OpenOffice, it's free and it's great.

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

...it's not about saving the space, it's about management of the the stuff that insists on being displayed, particularly in the tree. There is just too much crap cluttering things up.

OK - So you don't really want to delete these items, you just don't want to see them in the file management windows. That's OK - no need to delete anything !!
Here's what to do:

In Windows 10 there is a "ThisPCPolicy" in Registry the to show or hide items in "This PC" window. If the string value is set to "Show", that particular item is shown in "This PC" window and if the string value is set to "Hide", that item is not shown, so we just need to change the value of "ThisPCPolicy" key to "Hide" for each of these items. This won't break anything!


1. Run Regedit
2. Back up the Registry - from File menu, click Export
3. Find the following keys -


For Pictures folder:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{0ddd015d-b06c-45d5-8c4c-f59713854639}\PropertyBag


For Videos folder:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{35286a68-3c57-41a1-bbb1-0eae73d76c95}\PropertyBag


For Downloads folder:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{7d83ee9b-2244-4e70-b1f5-5393042af1e4}\PropertyBag


For Music folder:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{a0c69a99-21c8-4671-8703-7934162fcf1d}\PropertyBag


For Desktop folder:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{B4BFCC3A-DB2C-424C-B029-7FE99A87C641}\PropertyBag


For Documents folder:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{f42ee2d3-909f-4907-8871-4c22fc0bf756}\PropertyBag


4. Change the REG_SZ key called "ThisPCPolicy" from "Show" to "Hide"
(Note that Desktop does not have such a key, so if you ant to hide it, first create a REG_SZ key and name it "ThisPCPolicy" - without the quotes!!) Set is value to "Hide"


5. Do the same for the following - this is needed to suppress display for older 32-bit programs -

Pictures folder in Browse window:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{0ddd015d-b06c-45d5-8c4c-f59713854639}\PropertyBag


For Videos folder in Browse window:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{35286a68-3c57-41a1-bbb1-0eae73d76c95}\PropertyBag


For Downloads folder in Browse window:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{7d83ee9b-2244-4e70-b1f5-5393042af1e4}\PropertyBag


For Music folder in Browse window:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{a0c69a99-21c8-4671-8703-7934162fcf1d}\PropertyBag


For Desktop folder in Browse window:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{B4BFCC3A-DB2C-424C-B029-7FE99A87C641}\PropertyBag


For Documents folder in Browse window:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{f42ee2d3-909f-4907-8871-4c22fc0bf756}\PropertyBag


Note that you can simply do an F3 search for the string "ThisPCPolicy" in RegEdit. Click on the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer key first, otherwise the search may take a while. This won't work for Desktop s there is no existing key, so you will need to search for part of the key's hex value to find it.

Ross, that solution would suit me.
This is my This PC tree. I would like to hide the items circled in red. Would I have to create a key for each of these items first?

This-PC.jpg

Originally Posted by Grumpy John

I would like to hide the items circled in red.

This-PC.jpg
I'm telling on you....

Those Regedits work nicely - thanks very much Ross.

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Gruñón Juan,if you haven't done those edits yet, you have to highlight ThisPCPolicy and either right click/Modify and type Hide, or click Edit (top left), Modify, Hide. They won't disappear from the This PC view until you refresh it by going up/back. They won't disappear from the tree but the expansion arrow will go.
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Ross, how do I find out the hex key for 3D Objects? According to this site the hk is {0DB7E03F-FC29-4DC6-9020-FF41B59E513A} but I suspect mine is different (that hk does not exist when I look for it, either in SOFTWARE\\\\\ or SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\\\\\). That will most likely be as a result of a Location change I made a week ago (I didn't quite follow poundy's instructions correctly to relocate the 3D folder, and it wound up in the wrong spot, but a restoration seems to have worked ok....'cept the hk must be different now.

I suppose a supplementary question is: does it matter that the 3D Objects folder has a different hk now?

Hmmmm. I did a search of "3D Objects" and I found it, but there is no Property Bag.

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Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

They won't disappear from the tree but the expansion arrow will go.

Belay that...yes they do.....in the interim, Downloads, Pictures, Music & Videos have all dropped out of the tree as well

GJ - Those three look like DLNA media servers. The {289AF617-1CC3-42A6-926C-E6A863F0E3BA} CLSID should control this. Remove the CLSID from

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace

Brett -

CLSID Key (GUID) Shortcuts List for Windows 10 | Tutorials gives you a list of CLSIDs

For removing 3D you can delete {0DB7E03F-FC29-4DC6-9020-FF41B59E513A} from under the ...\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace keys as above.

Originally Posted by RossM

CLSID Key (GUID) Shortcuts List for Windows 10 | Tutorials gives you a list of CLSIDs

For removing 3D you can delete {0DB7E03F-FC29-4DC6-9020-FF41B59E513A} from under the ...\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace keys as above.

Thanks again Ross. Taking on board what poundy says about maintenance of the system with updates, I would prefer to just hide 3D Objects rather than delete it. However, it does appear that it can be simply hidden (that key doesn't have a Property Bag either - but at least I still have that key).

Should that key exist in Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\ or only in the folder you've just described?

OTOH, if it IS completely ok to just delete that key and 3D Objects as a result, without interfering with updates or maintenance, then I think I'm inclined to do so. It is, after all, just an empty folder.