Windows 7 Disable the Libraries Feature on Windows 7

Ive seen this request in these boards before. Personally, I think its best new feature in Windows 7. Anyways, if your interested heres how

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[john3347]

Fantastic Find Loathe, Thanks a Million

Ive seen this request in these boards before. Personally, I think its best new feature in Windows 7. Anyways, if your interested heres how

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Read on >>

I am sure some people will find Libraries helpful, but after 6 months with Libraries, I find it actually adding to the confusion and lack of organization/system of document management in Windows. On the same site, is also instructions to disable "Homegroup" which is CLEARLY useless if you are one of the millions who will have only one installation of Windows 7. Microsoft really outdid themselves on this one, making "Homegroup" only work on computers with Windows 7 installed. (Well, Mr. Microsoft, it kinda makes me want to not put Windows 7 on any of my computers rather than spring for the bucks to put it on all 8 of them.)

 

[john3347]

Looking better

Screen shots of the "improved" Explorer Menu with "All Documents" folder expanded and with it collapsed. Homegroup and Libraries has been disabled in both shots. (Sorry I didn't get a "before" screen shot. Was too excited to get rid of the useless items.)

Now if I could arrange my folder Icons in the order of frequency of use... Why must we all have to settle for alphabetical order? Perhaps I want to arrange some on one line and some on another, or skip a space or two between groups, etc..........these are things that we have previously been able to do to make our computers "personal".

 

[loathe]

You know if you right click the favourites at the top there is an option add current location to favourites. I put all of the regular folders I want to browse to quickly there, and you can change the order of them too.

As for Homegroup, it is a new feature so you cant really expect it to work with older versions of Windows. Maybe Vista will have it included in its next service pack. Works really well between two 7 systems, another nice new feature in my opinion.

 

[john3347]

You know if you right click the favourites at the top there is an option add current location to favourites. I put all of the regular folders I want to browse to quickly there, and you can change the order of them too.

As for Homegroup, it is a new feature so you cant really expect it to work with older versions of Windows. Maybe Vista will have it included in its next service pack. Works really well between two 7 systems, another nice new feature in my opinion.

I tried to move my "All Documents" folder, with all its sub-folders to "Favorites" and I didn't figure how to do it. I opened "All Documents" and then right clicked "Favorites" and then selected "add current location" and nothing happened. I then just tried to highlight "All Documents" without opening or expanding and do the same and nothing happened again. I re-booted a time or two during this process to see if that may be required, and still was unsuccessful. I didn't try to move each individual sub-folder one at a time, maybe that could have worked????. I would also love to remove "Public" folder from "Users", but when I try to do that, when I re-boot, it just comes back on its own.

Yeah, Homegroup may be a good addition for those who have multiple Windows 7 computers, but its presence is a distraction and source of confusion to the millions who will not have multiple Windows 7 computers networked. Should either have been written to include Vista and XP, or been easily disabled as the hack does.

 

[Highwayman]

...its presence is a distraction and source of confusion to the millions who will not have multiple Windows 7 computers networked...

Sorry but Keep Windows 7's exclusive features to Windows 7 please Microsoft...or people will have another reason to cling to the Luddite's XP installs, although I do agree the feature should have a toggle if it doesnt detect any windows 7 pc's on the network.

 

[stueycaster]

Actually I kinda like the Libraries feature. I had already unpinned the icon from my taskbar since I prefer to use desktop icons. Then I found a way to add a Libraries Desktop Icon.

Libraries Desktop Icon - Add or Remove - Windows 7 Forums

Then I added a couple other locations that I like to use. As far as I am concerned it's pretty cool.

 

[john3347]

Actually I kinda like the Libraries feature. I had already unpinned the icon from my taskbar since I prefer to use desktop icons. Then I found a way to add a Libraries Desktop Icon.

.

I have created an "All Documents" folder and have created a desktop shortcut to that folder which contains as many sub-folders as I need for whatever I need one for. This eliminates any need for "libraries". Now if I could just get rid of the "Users" folder and all references to it and references to the libraries folder.

 

[epk1950]

Screen shots of the "improved" Explorer Menu with "All Documents" folder expanded and with it collapsed. Homegroup and Libraries has been disabled in both shots. (Sorry I didn't get a "before" screen shot. Was too excited to get rid of the useless items.)

How did you remove the

+ expand - collapse

symbols in your second attachment?

Looks very nice by the way.

Edit:
Omy ima doosh, they appear and disappear by there selves.

 

[RAK]

I do the same as John, but have the folder on the desktop,rather than a shortcut. I have it saved for subsequent reinstalls to save a bit of time. I,ve got used to it now and could hardly manage without it.


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[john3347]

I do the same as John, but have the folder on the desktop,rather than a shortcut. I have it saved for subsequent reinstalls to save a bit of time. I,ve got used to it now and could hardly manage without it.


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Have you tried renaming the folders in your screen shot to something like "1Pictures", 2Stationary", "3Documents", etc. to force a different arrangement. (numbers take precedence over letters in alphabetic arrangement) It is a "Mickey Mouse" way to have to do that, and is a disgrace that Microsoft took away the ability to arrange them according to each user's preference, but it works in most cases. (I also use that "trick" to arrange frequently called numbers to the top of the list on my cell phone. This forces "1John" ahead of "Abby")

 

[RAK]

Thanks John. I appreciate the thought, but as I can see all the icons at the same time, a simple mouse click works for me.
Otherwise I just type the name in the search box of the Start.

 

[Highwayman]

Have you tried renaming the folders in your screen shot to something like "1Pictures", 2Stationary", "3Documents", etc. to force a different arrangement. (numbers take precedence over letters in alphabetic arrangement) It is a "Mickey Mouse" way to have to do that, and is a disgrace that Microsoft took away the ability to arrange them according to each user's preference, but it works in most cases. (I also use that "trick" to arrange frequently called numbers to the top of the list on my cell phone. This forces "1John" ahead of "Abby")

Oddly keeping it on the taskbar the manual ordering sticks there just fine

 

[stevae]

it's funny john, but the things you are complaining about seem extremely trivial to me. first, after disabling align to grid and ordering, i can put my icons in any order i decide to have them. second, why would m$ want to network their new opsys to an opsys that they will no longer support? even a better question, is why would people want to hold on to riding horses as basic transportation, when we now have beamers and benzes? in general, i think people need to get with the program, and realize that hanging on to the old, is counter productive to the future. win 7 is a million times better than xp, and if you bother to learn about the opsys, it is sooooooooooo much more useful. why would there be such a desparity between clicking on an icon from the taskbar, and doing the same from the desktop? i mean, how lazy can we actually become as a society? i don't have a single icon on my desktop, and i guarantee i can get to my programs just as fast as anyone else can, and just as easily.
and as mentioned earlier, the search bar in the start menu can get you to anything quickly and easily.

 

[Highwayman]

cant help but agree, dump legacy and live in the now...lol

 

[RAK]

I totally agree with the last two posts, concerning moving on to new things, instead of trying to change them. However, many users are addicted to customisation, whatever the first, and often, faultless, default may be. (I believe I am a fringe user in that category!)
I do not read Johns posts as complaints, but statements of his own experiments. Mayb a little badly worded and so can be regrded as complaints? They can be interesting, and may be of use to the customisation freaks. If you look at one of the older sites, such as Techguy, for example, you will see that, even after so many years, users of XP and Vista, are still moving things around in the interests of such customisation. Our site here, as an example, has more than 300 posts, in two threads, on the subject of trying to revert the Start menu back to the original.

By the way, Fwiw stevae, I did not read that anyone was having problems arranging the desktop icons. The references were to the Windows Explorer.