Manage Windows 7 Libraries more effectively

[Maq.H]

Inspired by the music library function of Windows Media Player, the Libraries are one of the new Windows 7. They can better sort and find your files, regardless of their actual location on the hard disk.

Thus, a library is a virtual folder that lists all files of the same genus, regardless of their location on the hard drive of your computer. Inside the Image Library, you will find such images stored in your My Pictures folder, but all those recorded elsewhere in any other folder on your computer. The files are displayed in the same window, even if they are physically recorded on several different hard drive.

Windows 7 has four default Library: Documents, Pictures, Music and Videos. You can easily customize it to reference the contents of the folders of your choice, you can create your own libraries, add content that is on your system, customize their icons, etc..

Access Library:

By default, Windows 7 has 4 pre-defined libraries that allow you quick access to your images, documents, music and video.

• To access the library, open the Start menu and click on your name.
  
  
• In the left pane, click Library.
  
  
• You can also click directly on the Explorer icon in the taskbar.
  
  
• You now have access to pre-defined libraries.
  
  
• Double click a library to open and view files and folders it contains. These can be spread throughout your computer.

Complete Library:

Libraries can reference the contents of the folders you want. You can add a file to a library for quick access to its files.

• To take into account other files in a library, first open it.
  
  
• Click the x locations Includes side of the field.
  
  
• The list of physical files which are stored files is displayed. Click the Add button.
  
  
• Select a new folder to add to the list and collect the contents by the library. Click Include folder.
  
  
• To remove a file from a library, select the location and click Remove. Note that the file is not deleted from your hard drive, it just is no longer listed by the library.
  
  
• Click OK.
  
  
• You can quickly add a file to a library by clicking the right mouse button in Explorer, pull down the menu include in the library and click on the library of your choice. Note that a file may well be in several libraries.

[Maq.H]

Create a new Library:

You can easily create your own custom libraries. Here is how to do that:

• To create a new library, for example, Labour, return to the Library folder.
  
  
• Click the New button library.
  
  
• Give it a name and then double click it to open.
  
  
• Then click the button Include folder.
  
  
• Select a folder to your hard disk to be referenced in this library and click Include file.
  
  
• The folder and its contents are then accessible from the library.

Add a network drive to a Library:

By default, Windows 7 does not add a disk to a library or a folder on another computer on the network. Here is how to bridge this gap on your computer:

• On your computer, the root of drive C: \, create a new folder called Sharing.
• Open this folder and create a temporary folder inside Temp for example.
• Add this file to a library and press.
• Click OK.
• Then delete the Temp folder in Explorer.
• Pull down the menu Start and type cmd.
• Click the right mouse button on the program cmd.exe and select Run as administrator .*
• Click Yes.
• Enter the following command with the path of network drive or folder to add to the library.
  

  MKLINK / dc: \ share \ temp \ \ PC_DISTANT \ folder, replacing \ \ PC_DISTANT \ folder

[Maq.H]

Change the Library icon:

To customize the icon of a library, you must edit files hidden in Windows 7.

• Initially, view hidden files and system. To do this in an Explorer window, click the Organize menu, then Options and research files.
  
  
• Open the View tab.
  
  
• Select View Files, folders and drives hidden and click OK.
  
  
• In Windows Explorer, then navigate to C: \ Users \ [your name] \ AppData \ Roaming \ Microsoft \ Windows \ Libraries. The library definition files are displayed.
  
  
• Click Start. Enter the command notepad and press Enter.
  
  
• The notebook is opened. Drag the icon for the library to edit in Notepad.
  
  
• The line <iconReference> imageres.dll, -1004 </ iconReference> indicates the path of the icon. Here it is the icon file imageres.dll 1004.
  
  
• If you have a file icon in ICO format, enter the full path between the tags and instead of the existing path.
  
  
• If you want to change the icon of a library that you created, this line is missing. Add it just after the line <isLibraryPinned> true </ isLibraryPinned>.
  
  
• Click the File menu, click Save and then close the Notepad window.
  
  
• The new icon is immediately used.