I hear you, damccoy....my memory is NOT what it used to be either and my attitude is NOT what it used to be either. I find myself "cranky" about having to spend my valuable time learning something new when what I was doing was perfectly fine and suited my needs. AND I would really prefer spending my time doing something else more fun...like quilting or sewing or reading on my kindle or gardening or scrapbooking or cooking or most anything than sitting in front of a computer screen. And I know that I may learn a new trick or two but I really don't care....I was a happy camper with things the way they were! "Obstinate and cranky in her old age" Murphy

I found one PDF shortcut which states "location: My Documents". The target is "D" but the actual location is C:\Documents and Settings\Recent. I just saved a notepad titled "Ben", saved as a text file and one titled "Zen". The "Ben" file located and showed in My Documents and created a shortcut in the Recent folder. The "Zen" file is located in C:\Documents and Settings\Recent and has a shortcut there. The target is D:\zen.txt. Somehow when I save to My Documents, I'm involving the Recent folder. Never heard of this folder before but it seems to have intertwined with My Documents and its save feature.

Bob - Good Grief is right. But it's probably not as bad as it sounds. One of the problems is that before I found this forum a year ago (and had some sense of saving files to the appropriate place), not only did my husband and I just save files (with no regard to where they were being placed) - we also had 2 different computer guys help at various times - and I've discovered that one of them took it upon himself to set up some folders and put items there (he set up a Lynn's documents) when he transferred data from one computer to another. Now I can see why he set up my own folder (since my husband and I shared a computer in those days) - but he never told me he was doing that- so lo and behold - I have an entire Lynn's documents folder that I never use but contains some of my older files. yeah - I guess it's a lot to sort. Personally, your method makes sense to me - just set up folders in the C drive for the categories I'm interested in. I'm now the only one on my computer - so I don't think I need a "my documents" folder (and certainly not a separate "Lynn's documents" folder). I am so glad to have found this forum and decided to get mastery and comprehension of my computer. Having professionals set things up - but not bother telling you what and why they did things - just complicates everything. And the pictures are also a mess bc. this helpful computer guy put picasa on my pc - which grabbed every picture - so that many pictures appear in picasa and elsewhere. It's the picture finding and organizing that seems the most daunting. Videos and music I've done myself in the past year - no one else has touched it but me. Word files are manageable too. BP - my question about the Tivo files is that I want to sit in my living room, have Tivo search my computer to see what's on it. That's what I'm thinking has to be in the Tivo desktop program. When I'm at my computer, I think I can find the videos anywhere - I'm just thinking that no matter where they came from (Tivo desktop, hulu, my camcorder, edited in Videoredo), that I might somehow have to move them all to My Tivo Recordings folder in order to access it using the Tivo and watching tv. Do I have that right? Jemdandy - that's one interesting way to approach the 2 drives - one for programs and one for data files. But then I'd be backing up data files to yet another place. I have a 500GB hard drive and am thinking of adding a second 1TB hard drive. So both drives have lots of room. Except for video files, I would think my c drive could easily handle my programs and data files (music, documents and pictures) - and the software and those files could be on the c drive and backed up to the second internal drive. Is there a reason - in terms of improved performance, etc - to use the c drive only for software? Does that add an extra step if I want to use one of my software programs (say photo editing) and have to go to the other drive to get the actual photos to work on? Or is it just as quick to run a program on one drive and get the data from the other? [Okay - good grief, it is]. Thanks everyone. Lynn.

Turn your computer on and instantly start Tapping the F8 Key and don't stop until you know you have a new screen. Select last known good configuration. Enter It's possible to get on the Internet using the Task Manager If a computer is working OK. I will give you the commands for Control Panel Icons if they will open using Start - Run - nusrmgr.cpl - OK That one is for User Accounts. System Properties = sysdm.cpl Network Connections = ncpa.cpl ODBC Administrator = odbccp32.cpl Display Properties = desk.cpl Add or remove programs = appwiz.cpl Internet Properties = Inetcpl.cpl Game Controllers = joy.cpl Phone and modem Options = telephon.cpl Time and Date Properties = timedate.cpl Region and Language Options = intl.cpl Power Options = powercfg.cpl Mouse Properties = main.cpl Accessibility Options = access.cpl Add Hardware Wizard = hdwwiz.cpl Sound and Audio Devices = mmsys.cpl User Accounts = nusrmgr.cpl Speech Properties = sapi.cpl