computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and development of both hardware and software. Computing has scientific, ...

, and specifically in the context of Microsoft Windows

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...

refers to Folder Redirection when automatically re-routing I/O to/from standard folders (directories) to use storage elsewhere on a

network Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

. It is often used in an office network environment, to ensure that users do not store data locally, when a network device is the preferred storage location. Folder Redirection allows saving data regardless of storage location and separates user data from profile data decreasing the time required to log on. Other advantages include: * Data is stored on a server where it can be backed up * If the same redirection is applied to multiple users, all data is stored in the one location * Allows for sharing of data between users directly from the server rather than creating shares on individual workstations * Allows system administrators to spend less on workstation hard drives, and more on file server hard drives * If all user folders are redirected and caching is disabled, no files are stored on the workstations and thus data is better protected from theft Under Microsoft Windows, the redirection is often performed by

Group Policy Group Policy is a feature of the Microsoft Windows NT family of operating systems (including Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows Server 2003+) that controls the working environment of user accounts and computer accounts. ...

, when used in an

Active Directory Active Directory (AD) is a directory service developed by Microsoft for Windows domain networks. It is included in most Windows Server operating systems as a set of processes and services. Initially, Active Directory was used only for centr ...

environment. It can also be performed by manually editing the

Windows Registry The Windows Registry is a hierarchical database that stores low-level settings for the Microsoft Windows operating system and for applications that opt to use the registry. The kernel, device drivers, services, Security Accounts Manager, and u ...

, changing library locations, or with tools such as Tweak UI.

Disk quota A disk quota is a limit set by a system administrator that restricts certain aspects of file system usage on modern operating systems. The function of using disk quotas is to allocate limited disk space in a reasonable way. Types of quotas There ...

s can be used to limit the amount of space taken up by users' special folders. The %username% and %userprofile%

environment variable An environment variable is a dynamic-named value that can affect the way running processes will behave on a computer. They are part of the environment in which a process runs. For example, a running process can query the value of the TEMP env ...

s can also be used with Folder Redirection. Up to

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was release to manufacturing, released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Wind ...

, the ''Application Data'', ''Desktop'', ''My Documents'', ''My Pictures'', and ''Start Menu''

special folders On Microsoft Windows, a special folder is a folder that is presented to the user through an interface as an abstract concept instead of an absolute folder path. (The synonymous term shell folder is sometimes used instead.) Special folders mak ...

can be redirected to a file server. Windows XP also implements a Recycle Bin for the My Documents folder. Windows Vista introduces the ability to independently redirect up to 10 user profile sub-folders to a network location. There is also a Management Console snap-in in Windows Vista to allow users to configure ''Folder Redirection'' for clients running Windows Vista, Windows XP, and

Windows 2000 Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft and oriented towards businesses. It was the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was released to manufacturing on December 15, 1999, and was official ...

. Each redirected folder in Vista and later also has a Recycle Bin associated with it. Under

Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, 2009. It is the successor to Windows Vista, released nearl ...

and later, the following user folders may be redirected: AppData/Roaming, Contacts, Desktop, Downloads, Favorites, Links, Music, Documents, Pictures, Saved Games, Searches, Start Menu, and Videos. The equivalent functionality is achieved in

Unix-like A Unix-like (sometimes referred to as UN*X or *nix) operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, although not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. A Unix-li ...

systems by using

mount 
Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest.

Mount or Mounts may also refer to:

  Places 
*  Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England
*  Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish,  ...

or ln and a NFS or CIF.

References

Windows administration Windows components {{compu-network-stub

See also

References