VC++ 2005 - Directory in My Documents..

[Tonto]

I am trying to remove the directories that VC++ 2005 makes in My Documents, it's annoying. Changed:

Projects folder to C:\Projects
Project templates to C:\Projects\Templates\Project\
Item templates to C:\Projects\Templates\Items\

It still created the directory tree in My Documents\

Visual Studio 2005\Backup Files
Visual Studio 2005\Projects
Visual Studio 2005\Templates\ItemTemplates
Visual Studio 2005\Tempaltes\ProjectTemplates

All blank. Kind of annoying. In the registry, I searched for what could be causing this, and found these entries still.

[HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-343818398-1275210071-725345543-1003\Software\Microsoft\MSDN\8.0]
"MyDocumentsLocation"=hex(2):25,00,55,00,53,00,45,00,52,00,50,00,52,00,4f,00,\
  46,00,49,00,4c,00,45,00,25,00,5c,00,4d,00,79,00,20,00,44,00,6f,00,63,00,75,\
  00,6d,00,65,00,6e,00,74,00,73,00,00,00
"EditCfgData"=hex:db,03,91,4a,94,63,9c,48,8e,ec,69,01,34,00,38,1a
"ToolboxReadSuccess"=dword:00000001
"FullScreen"="0"
"MainWindow"="88 65 1408 1040 1"
"VisualStudioLocation"=hex(2):25,00,55,00,53,00,45,00,52,00,50,00,52,00,4f,00,\
  46,00,49,00,4c,00,45,00,25,00,5c,00,4d,00,79,00,20,00,44,00,6f,00,63,00,75,\
  00,6d,00,65,00,6e,00,74,00,73,00,5c,00,56,00,69,00,73,00,75,00,61,00,6c,00,\
  20,00,53,00,74,00,75,00,64,00,69,00,6f,00,20,00,32,00,30,00,30,00,35,00,00,\
  00
"DefaultNewProjectLocation"=hex(2):25,00,55,00,53,00,45,00,52,00,50,00,52,00,\
  4f,00,46,00,49,00,4c,00,45,00,25,00,5c,00,4d,00,79,00,20,00,44,00,6f,00,63,\
  00,75,00,6d,00,65,00,6e,00,74,00,73,00,5c,00,56,00,69,00,73,00,75,00,61,00,\
  6c,00,20,00,53,00,74,00,75,00,64,00,69,00,6f,00,20,00,32,00,30,00,30,00,35,\
  00,5c,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,6a,00,65,00,63,00,74,00,73,00,00,00
"DefaultOpenProjectLocation"=hex(2):25,00,55,00,53,00,45,00,52,00,50,00,52,00,\
  4f,00,46,00,49,00,4c,00,45,00,25,00,5c,00,4d,00,79,00,20,00,44,00,6f,00,63,\
  00,75,00,6d,00,65,00,6e,00,74,00,73,00,5c,00,56,00,69,00,73,00,75,00,61,00,\
  6c,00,20,00,53,00,74,00,75,00,64,00,69,00,6f,00,20,00,32,00,30,00,30,00,35,\
  00,5c,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,6a,00,65,00,63,00,74,00,73,00,00,00
"DefaultOpenSolutionLocation"=hex(2):25,00,55,00,53,00,45,00,52,00,50,00,52,00,\
  4f,00,46,00,49,00,4c,00,45,00,25,00,5c,00,4d,00,79,00,20,00,44,00,6f,00,63,\
  00,75,00,6d,00,65,00,6e,00,74,00,73,00,5c,00,56,00,69,00,73,00,75,00,61,00,\
  6c,00,20,00,53,00,74,00,75,00,64,00,69,00,6f,00,20,00,32,00,30,00,30,00,35,\
  00,5c,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,6a,00,65,00,63,00,74,00,73,00,00,00
"DefaultNewProjItemLocation"=hex(2):25,00,55,00,53,00,45,00,52,00,50,00,52,00,\
  4f,00,46,00,49,00,4c,00,45,00,25,00,5c,00,4d,00,79,00,20,00,44,00,6f,00,63,\
  00,75,00,6d,00,65,00,6e,00,74,00,73,00,5c,00,56,00,69,00,73,00,75,00,61,00,\
  6c,00,20,00,53,00,74,00,75,00,64,00,69,00,6f,00,20,00,32,00,30,00,30,00,35,\
  00,5c,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,6a,00,65,00,63,00,74,00,73,00,00,00
"DefaultOpenProjItemLocation"=hex(2):25,00,55,00,53,00,45,00,52,00,50,00,52,00,\
  4f,00,46,00,49,00,4c,00,45,00,25,00,5c,00,4d,00,79,00,20,00,44,00,6f,00,63,\
  00,75,00,6d,00,65,00,6e,00,74,00,73,00,5c,00,56,00,69,00,73,00,75,00,61,00,\
  6c,00,20,00,53,00,74,00,75,00,64,00,69,00,6f,00,20,00,32,00,30,00,30,00,35,\
  00,5c,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,6a,00,65,00,63,00,74,00,73,00,00,00
"DefaultFileOpenLocation"=hex(2):25,00,55,00,53,00,45,00,52,00,50,00,52,00,4f,\
  00,46,00,49,00,4c,00,45,00,25,00,5c,00,4d,00,79,00,20,00,44,00,6f,00,63,00,\
  75,00,6d,00,65,00,6e,00,74,00,73,00,5c,00,56,00,69,00,73,00,75,00,61,00,6c,\
  00,20,00,53,00,74,00,75,00,64,00,69,00,6f,00,20,00,32,00,30,00,30,00,35,00,\
  5c,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,6a,00,65,00,63,00,74,00,73,00,00,00
"DefaultBrowseComponentLocation"=hex(2):25,00,55,00,53,00,45,00,52,00,50,00,52,\
  00,4f,00,46,00,49,00,4c,00,45,00,25,00,5c,00,4d,00,79,00,20,00,44,00,6f,00,\
  63,00,75,00,6d,00,65,00,6e,00,74,00,73,00,5c,00,56,00,69,00,73,00,75,00,61,\
  00,6c,00,20,00,53,00,74,00,75,00,64,00,69,00,6f,00,20,00,32,00,30,00,30,00,\
  35,00,5c,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,6a,00,65,00,63,00,74,00,73,00,00,00
"WindowLayoutReadSuccess"=dword:00000001

...

Those are unicode strings for you know those directories, which appear to still be defaults. What settings can I change to make it stop creating these folders in My Documents? If worse comes to worse, can I just edit the entries in the registry?

[GanglyLamb]

Does it really take that long to select a different location for your project in VS ? By the time you figured out how to change the defaults you could have created thousands of projects with a custom location ....

( if this is an option that is not available in the express edition then forget what I just said )

[Ken Fitlike]

I think those paths can mostly be changed from the options dialog(Tools menu -->options, projects and solutions). Presumably, if you leave those fields blank you should be able to delete the existng directories without worrying about them being re-created.

[Tonto]

That was the option I changed when I made these settings:

Projects folder to C:\Projects
Project templates to C:\Projects\Templates\Project\
Item templates to C:\Projects\Templates\Items\

If I try making them blank, it says 'location specified cannot be empty'. Gangly, it's even worse than that. I'm merely have a gripe with vs creating the directories in my my documents folder, the default is set elsewhere like I wanted. I'm just being really obsessivecompulsive with a hard drive, trying to organize things. It's kind of nice when you don't have any clutter and things are working how you want them too. It's a good way to procrastinate from school work

[maxhavoc]

This is kind of a poor solution but it might help.

1) delete the folders that VS 2005 put there
2) create a text file with the exact same name as the folder and no extension
3) make the file read only and hidden
4) turn off show hidden files in folder options

Windows can't create two objects with the same name in one directory, so it shouldn't be able to create a folder there. This also works with My Music and My Pictures which I hate with a passion. It's not foolproof and it requires you to have useless files and it requires you to disable show hidden files, but it does usually work.