User Folders on separate drive - Folder redirection?

I have reset my indexing and search and now Windows indexed Start Menu and my User folder. I guess this is ok when my Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos folder are located there (as they are by default after a clean install). However mine are located on a large D:\ drive (which since has become an SSD as well).
I have changed the location of my Documents etc. folders in the sidebar of File Explorer to point to D:\Documents etc. Does this automatically include them in indexing and search?
Some people on reddit seem to be of the view that doing it this way is not state of the art, but the D:\Documents folder should be redirected to the deafult C:\User\.... location using gpedit.
What is the view of the experts on this forum as to what is state of the art in this respect?
My goals are to keep my system as stable as possible and indexing and search as well oiled as possible.

GPEdit is not compulsory.
I have never had GPEdit [I have always had Windows Home] and I have never experienced any constraints or difficulties relocating my user folders.

Many people relocate their documents etc folders to a D:\ drive to suit their chosen backup methods [imaging for the OS & applications drive, file copying for the data drive]. I think reddit might well have misunderstood your question.

You can check that your changes have all been recorded correctly by looking at their values in this Registry Key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
[The entry Personal means your Documents folder path.]

Indexing does not know about your changes. You need to change what is indexed using the Indexing options dialog. It gets a bit of getting used to.
control.exe srchadmin.dll

Then click on Modify to do changes.

Always take a screenshot of this dialog when you've finished changing the folders. It's the best record of them you can have.


Denis

PS

My Indexing options dialog has two Start menu entries because there are always two Start menus [What you see onscreen as your Start menu is a combination of both of them].
Start menu - All users
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
Start menu - CurrentUser
C:\Users\%UserName%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu

Enclose these paths in " if you create shortcuts to get to them.
I've attached a zipped copy to save you the trouble.

Denis

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I move my documents to a data drive, and other folders like Downloads I configure elsewhere as well. No, I do NOT use OneDrive, so that gets disabled on the spot!

jacobacci said:

I have changed the location of my Documents etc. folders in the sidebar of File Explorer to point to D:\Documents etc. Does this automatically include them in indexing and search?

Click to expand...

My answer is yes.
I have had user folders on a secondary drive for longer than I can think back, and I have never once had an issue with indexing. No I didn’t re-index. But like a lot of things it can’t hurt but in my opinion it isn’t necessary.

Don’t let it get complicated because It isn’t complicated. As long as you disabled OneDrive and moved your folders correctly, you’re good to go.

jacobacci said:

I have reset my indexing and search and now Windows indexed Start Menu and my User folder. I guess this is ok when my Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos folder are located there (as they are by default after a clean install). However mine are located on a large D:\ drive (which since has become an SSD as well).
I have changed the location of my Documents etc. folders in the sidebar of File Explorer to point to D:\Documents etc. Does this automatically include them in indexing and search?
Some people on reddit seem to be of the view that doing it this way is not state of the art, but the D:\Documents folder should be redirected to the deafult C:\User\.... location using gpedit.
What is the view of the experts on this forum as to what is state of the art in this respect?
My goals are to keep my system as stable as possible and indexing and search as well oiled as possible.

Click to expand...

i have my drive partitioned and set up as C: drive for Windows and D: drive for Data
doc's, downloads, music, pictures and video folders have all been moved to D: drive

indexing just picked up there location automatically with no issues
and i have not had any other problem with these folders being placed on D: drive.

best of luck Steve ..

Thanks guys, my concerns are gone re. the location of Documents etc. folders.