Most applications offer a way for you to set a default save/open location. When you choose to open or save a file, you are taken to this location. By default, many applications use "My Documents" for their default save/open location. Unfortunately, Windows makes it difficult for you to know where My Documents is physically located on disk, so you may not even be aware that it is on your hard disk. Consequently, files you save here are never backed up. If your hard disk fails, you lose everything.
Ideally, we would move "My Documents" to a network location, but there are quite a few problems with doing this, which collectively make it impossible for us to do it.
Our second-best option is to change the default open/save location for commonly-used applications to be on the network. Having done this, we needed to give you a way to manage your own open/save locations. MyDrives' Default Save Locations feature provides this capability.
When you configure default save locations, they will be applied during the logon process at every MWS computer where you log on.
First, it helps you ensure that your documents are saved on the network, and therefore are protected from disasters.
Second, if you use multiple MWS computers, it will ensure that you automatically get the same default save locations on all of them, without having to make the change manually in each application yourself. This includes applications you run using Apps Anywhere.
First, decide where you want to save files, and for which application.
Then, in the dialog, click on the application whose default open/save location you want to modify. Then click the "Modify" button. In the browse dialog, select the appropriate drive letter in the list. Then browse to the desired folder (if any) on that drive. Then click OK.
If you want all applications to save in the same location, you can click the "Modify All" button to set them all at once.
You can use the "Clear" and "Clear All" buttons to remove default save locations you have already configured, if you no longer want them. The application(s) will revert to their built-in default.
Until you click "Save and Close", your changes aren't saved. You can click Cancel at any time.
There are two reasons.
First, the main purpose of the Default Save Locations dialog is to help people ensure that their files are saved onto network drives, rather than local drives. Saving files on local drives is risky; all hard disks fail eventually, so if you have not made your own backup arrangements, when that day comes, you will lose everything. This happens all the time.
The second reason is that your default save locations will be applied every time you log on to an MWS computer. If you use several different computers, default save locations on the C: drive would have a problem. Other computers where you log on are unlikely to have exactly the folder you have chosen.
They will stay where they are. We will not move them to the new location. Look for existing files where they always were. If you want to, you can move them to the new location yourself. We would not recommend copying them to the new location, because then you would have two sets, and you might accidentally edit files in the wrong one.
That depends on your particular working patterns.
If you don't store lots of documents on your hard disk in order to use them while you're away from work, then you can configure default save locations without any worries.
If you keep all your documents on your hard disk because you use them while you are away from work, then you should plan carefully before changing any default save locations. If, for example, you change Word's default save location to be on your M: drive, and then you create a number of documents there, then obviously the next time you are working away from the network, those documents won't be available. To get around this, in Windows 7, you could use the Sync Center feature to cache a local copy of those files on your M: drive. Then, when you're on the network, the network copy would be used, but when you go away, you'd automatically have a local copy to work with. Then, when you return to work, any local changes would be automatically synchronized with the copies on the network. This is the easiest way to have the best of both worlds: network protection yet local access.
(A similar feature to Windows 7's Sync Center exists in Windows XP, but it doesn't work properly or easily.)
When you are at home, you don't have your network drives, so when you start an application, it will probably notice that the default location doesn't exist and automatically revert to something local. The next time you log onto the network, the default save locations will be fixed again.
Probably. E-mail any such requests to the Helpdesk.