want to get rid of My Pictures in WinMe

[Lenny]

Every time I delete My Pictures in Windows Millennium, even in the registry, it soon re-appears. Can anyone tell me how to PERMANENTLY delete My Pictures?

[reghakr]

I rarely question people's requests.

However, on this one, I have to ask...Why would you want to do that?

reghakr

[Lenny]

I don't mind at all. For two basic reasons---I like to open my pics with IExplorer like in Windows 98---it seems simpler and faster. I frequently get "bugging" error messages with My Pictures. Also, I don't like the folder's name "My Pictures." I would want to give it another name, but found that impossible. I don't like WinMe's folksy My this and My that. I'm the only user of my computer---for example, I want to entitle my music folder just "Music," not "My Music." My Documents is as far as I am willing to go with the "My" in folder names. I think the excessive use of "My" is unnecessary and redundant, just like the way Microsoft excessively uses it's name on the Start Menu in the Microsoft Office programs---I immediately remove the word Microsoft on every such Start Menu entry. Maybe it's a quirk. ha.

[Lenny]

Through a search engine I found someone who also wanted to remove My Pictures. I emailed him, asking if he'd found an answer. I thought I'd eliminated every reference to My Pictures in the registry, but I guess not. I followed his prescription (below) and it worked!

_____________________

I can’t say mine is the best way but it worked. If you are not familiar with the registry, it is a good idea to export the registry (Start>Run>regedit>OK>Registry>Export) before doing these steps so you have a backup and can do an import and start over where you started just in case disaster strikes.



Run regedit (Start>Run>regedit>OK), highlight “My Computer” at top left and then select Edit>Find>My Pictures at the menu bar. Delete every entry for “My Pictures” that you find in shell folders by advancing through with the “Find Next” command, I had to delete two such entries. Exit the registry and go to the folders where the unwanted “My Pictures” folders are and delete them. They should not return when you reboot. It would be nice to just be able to change the properties and rename the “My Pictures” folder but I have not been able to figure that one out.



Good luck

[ackyraw]

If you want to change the name, or put it somewhere it wont bug you, just download TweakUI, go to the "MyComputer" Tab, and select "MyPictures"...
Change the value to another folder of your choice and reboot. You can now delete the old "My Pictures".

I also find the "Microsoft" and "my this", "my that" naming "convention" completely stupid...

With TweakUI, you'll also be able to remove the "My" for your "My documents". I changed mine to "C:\DATA".