[Strang]

I know this is only tangentially related, but this has always annoyed me in Windows. For example, "My Pictures" does not contain my pictures. My photos are in c:\photos.

And it gets worse with every Windows release. The standard file dialog in Windows 7 is absolutely ridiculous. There is a tree on the left, with absolutely worthless (to me) entries: Desktop, Favorites, Recent Places, My Photos, My Documents, etc., etc. The actual hard drive navigation is at the very bottom, and usually requires scrolling.

A sane navigation tree would just be a list of volumes.

[T-hawk]

This is because Windows has moved to modern file system organization concepts, keeping data for users within the user accounts and not in the global file space. Why are your photos in c:\photos? Why do you organize your files like it's 1995?

You'll find that that left tree is useful if you flow with the design of Windows rather than fighting against it. Desktop is meant to be an easily visible place for short-term storage of working documents. Recent Places is pretty smart about remembering frequently used local and network locations. My Photos / My Documents are totally useful if you actually put things there like the system is designed to do.

If you insist on drilling down to that hard drive navigation, don't blame the software for yourself deciding to break past the abstraction.

[Strang]

Three reasons.

1) They aren't my photos, they are my family's photos. My wife has her own user account and needs just as much access as I do. I'm sure there is some sort of "sharing" solution, but then you lose the convenience of having one location for "My Pictures", so what's the point?

2) C:\photos is a lot easier to type than C:\Users\xxx\Pictures. I much prefer typing to mouse navigation.

3) Windows will actually admit that C:\photos is a directory on a hard drive. If I navigate to "My Pictures", I get some pseudo-directory called Libraries > My Pictures.

Also, are you really so limited that you think there is only One Way to organize files on a hard drive, to the point that you feel the need to mock a stranger for choosing a different location on his hard drive for photos? I expect that snark on anonymous internet forums, but having it embedded in the operating system is another matter.