Section 1.17. StartMusic, Pictures: All Versions

1.17. Start Music, Pictures: All Versions

Microsoft correctly assumes that most people these days use their home computers for managing digital photos and music albums that have been downloaded or copied from CDs. As you can probably guess, the Pictures and Music folders are intended to house your photo and tune collectionsand these Start menu commands are quick ways to open them.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION
Secrets of the Personal Folder

So why did Microsoft bury your files in a folder three levels deep?

Because Vista has been designed from the ground up for computer sharing . It's ideal for any situation where different family members , students, or workers share the same PC.

Each person who uses the computer will turn on the machine to find his own separate desktop picture, set of files, Web bookmarks, font collection, and preference settings. (You'll find much more about this feature in Chapter 23.)

Like it or not, Vista considers you one of these people. If you're the only one who uses this PC, finesimply ignore the sharing features. But in its little software head, Vista still considers you an account holder, and stands ready to accommodate any others who should come along.

In any case, now you should see the importance of the Users folder in the main hard drive window. Inside are foldersthe Personal foldersnamed for the different people who use this PC. In general, nobody is allowed to touch what's inside anybody else's folder.

If you're the sole proprietor of the machine, of course, there's only one Personal folder in the Users foldernamed for you. (You can ignore the Public folder, which is described on page 730.)

This is only the first of many examples in which Vista imposes a fairly rigid folder structure. Still, the approach has its advantages. By keeping such tight control over which files go where, Vista keeps itself pureand very, very stable. (Other operating systems known for their stability, such as Windows 2000 and Mac OS X, work the same way.)

Furthermore, keeping all of your stuff in a single folder makes it very easy for you to back up your work. It also makes life easier when you try to connect to your machine from elsewhere in the office (over the network) or elsewhere in the world (over the Internet), as described in Chapter 26 and 27.

In fact, you'll probably find that whatever software came with your digital camera or MP3 player automatically dumps your photos into, and sucks your music files out of, these folders. You'll find much more on these topics in Chapters 13 and 14.