Lifehacker: The Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, and Better, Third Edition

Hack 18: Corral Media Across Folders and Drives

Level Beginner

Platform Windows 7

Cost Free

It’s not always practical to store all your files in your Documents folder. For example, many of us have an extra hard drive (internal or external) on which we store our ever-growing digital media libraries.

Microsoft introduced a new Libraries feature in Windows 7 that enables you to corral folders in different locations (and on different hard drives). Here’s how it works.

Windows 7 Libraries

In essence, Windows 7 Libraries are designed to collect files and folders of a common type in one easy-to-access bucket, no matter where those files or folders are located on your hard drive. All folders included in a library are visible within the library, but they’re still stored in their original location. (If you delete a library, none of the files or folders in the library will be affected.)

By default, your Windows 7 installation has four libraries: Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos. If, for example, you store videos you want to watch on-the-go in C:\Users\username\Videos on your laptop, but you also store your extensive video collection on an external USB hard drive at E:\Movies, you can include both folders in your Video library by navigating to your external hard drive, right-clicking the Movies folder, and selecting Include in library ⇒ Videos. The same goes for any library you create, as shown in Figure 2-11.

To remove a folder from a library, navigate to the library; then click the ...