Prevent moving the Windows special folders

It is possible to prevent a user from moving the Windows special folders, “My Documents”, “My Music”, “My Pictures” and “Favourites”. Here is how it can be done.

Firstly start the Windows XP registry editor by clicking on the “Start” menu. Then select “Run”, type “regedit” into the field that appears and press the OK key.

Once you are in the editor, go to the following tree location: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\

Select the “Explorer” folder from the left hand side and then right click on the open white space in the right hand window. A drop down menu will appear and you will need to select “New” and “DWORD Value”.

Once the new entry has been created it will become visible. You will now need to change its name and value. You can change its name by right clicking on it and selecting “Rename” from the drop down box that appears. To change its value, select “Edit” from the same drop down menu. For the “My Documents” folder, name the key “DisablePersonalDirChange” and enter the hexadecimal value off “1”. For the “My Pictures”, “My Music” and “Favourites” folders, create a new key and give them the names “DisableMyPicturesChange”, “DisableMyMusicChange” and “DisableFavouritesChange”.