Aandi Inston wrote:
> Although you can move the Documents and settings\USERNAME\Application
> Data folder, I don't see that you can change the internal arrangement
> at all, since these names are usually built into programs.

Hi Aandi,

In the olden days (circa Windows 95, Windows 98, etc.) it was much
easier to maintain a healthy C:\My Data directory because Microsoft was
basically ignorant of the concept of data storage.

Then, in the Windows 2K/NT/XP era, it became a bit harder to manage
(yes, harder - not easier) mainly because Microsoft (to their credit)
tried to create a culture which stored data separately from program
files; however (much to everyone's dismay), Microsoft created such an
abomination of a data directory tree that we were forced to abandon all
hope of making any sense of it, even after a multitude of well meaning
attempts to conform to their heinous data structures.

However, it's generally very easy (almost trivial) to ensure all
programs save data into their proper locations, e.g.,
C:\My Archivers (for PGP, PDF, ZIP, RAR, COA32, INCTRL5, etc.)
C:\My Browsers (for Firefox, Netscape, etc.)
C:\My Calendars (for TaskMaster, CalendarManger, MeetingMaker, etc.)
C:\My Databases (for map programs, address book managers, DBASEIII,
etc.)
C:\My Editors (for picture editors, video editors, text editors, hex
editors, etc.)
C:\My Finances (for Quicken, TurboTax, TaxCut, StockWorld, etc.)
C:\My Games (for games)
C:\My Hardware (for dvd burners, dvd rippres, telephony SKYPE, modems,
etc.)
C:\My ISP (for NetZero, SBCGlobal, VPN, etc.)
etc.

IMHO,
Susan