Windows Live Contacts folder redirection

Hello,
I need to change the default Windows Live Contacts folder location to
another drive.
How can I do it ?

thanks.

"ambrozy" <> wrote in message
news:FA30338E-2CAA-400D-B539-...
> Hello,
> I need to change the default Windows Live Contacts folder location to
> another drive.
> How can I do it ?

I don't think you can. If there is no WLC folder in your %userprofile%,
WLMail will create one next time you start the program.
I'll let you know if I find a workaround.
--
Noel

Let me know too

--
...winston
ms-mvp mail

"Ildhund" <> wrote in message news:#2#...
> "ambrozy" <> wrote in message
> news:FA30338E-2CAA-400D-B539-...
>> Hello,
>> I need to change the default Windows Live Contacts folder location to
>> another drive.
>> How can I do it ?
>
> I don't think you can. If there is no WLC folder in your %userprofile%,
> WLMail will create one next time you start the program.
> I'll let you know if I find a workaround.
> --
> Noel
>

Well, when I discovered how immoderately much space WLContacts were taking
on my hard-pressed C: drive, I did experiment with using a symbolic link to
fool WLMail into thinking that that link to a folder on my D: drive was in
fact my contacts folder. This seems to work and has saved almost half a GB.
I haven't yet detected any faults with doing it like this (although there
is the briefest of delays when accessing contacts), so if anyone else wants
to try it, here's the procedure for XP (there may be a similar function in
Vista and 7 - something to do with junctions, I believe):

With WLMail and WLMessenger closed down,
1. Copy the Windows Live Contacts folder to its new location. (I haven't
yet tried with an external drive.)
2. Rename the old folder to, say, Windows Dead Contacts.
3. Open two Explorer windows. In one, locate the new folder. In the other,
locate the folder called %userprofile%\Nethood.
4. Right-click and hold on the new folder, and drag it to the Nethood
folder. In the context menu that appears when you release the mouse button,
select 'Create shortcut here'.
5. Copy that shortcut to the same folder that Windows Dead Contacts are in.
Rename the shortcut Windows Live Contacts.
6. Restart WLMail and take it for a whirl.
7. When you're satisfied that all's well, delete the Windows Dead Contacts
folder. You can check the Properties sheet for one of the {GUID} folders in
the bogus folder to satisfy yourself that its contents are actually
somewhere else.
8. Don't blame me if it all goes pearshaped.

Of course, one could always move one's %userprofile% to another drive (
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314843 ), but I haven't dared try that.
--
Noel

"...winston" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Let me know too

> "Ildhund" <> wrote in message
> news:#2#...
>> "ambrozy" <> wrote in message
>> news:FA30338E-2CAA-400D-B539-...
>>> Hello,
>>> I need to change the default Windows Live Contacts folder location to
>>> another drive.
>>> How can I do it ?
>>
>> I don't think you can. If there is no WLC folder in your %userprofile%,
>> WLMail will create one next time you start the program.
>> I'll let you know if I find a workaround.

"Ildhund" <> wrote in message news:...
> Well, when I discovered how immoderately much space WLContacts were taking
> on my hard-pressed C: drive,

> I did experiment with using a symbolic link to fool WLMail into thinking
> that that link to a folder on my D: drive was in fact my contacts folder.


You had me all prepared to see an example of fsutil hardlink in action. ; )
What's not clear to me though is whether its symbolic link can refer to
a different volume.


> This seems to work and has saved almost half a GB.
....


Supposedly one of the problems with real symbolic links
is that it can confuse volume inventories, e.g. making it look
as if more space is being used than there really is.


---

"Robert Aldwinckle" <> wrote in message
news:#...
> "Ildhund" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> Well, when I discovered how immoderately much space WLContacts were
>> taking on my hard-pressed C: drive, I did experiment with using a
>> symbolic link to fool WLMail into thinking that that link to a folder on
>> my D: drive was in fact my contacts folder.

> You had me all prepared to see an example of fsutil hardlink in
> action. ; ) What's not clear to me though is whether its symbolic link
> can refer to a different volume.

I didn't use hardlink, because we're dealing with a *folder* containing a
multitude of files (in my case, 178 files in 81 folders totalling 457 MB),
and anyway I always thought that hardlink would only work *within* a
volume.

>> This seems to work and has saved almost half a GB.

> Supposedly one of the problems with real symbolic links is that it can
> confuse volume inventories, e.g. making it look as if more space is being
> used than there really is.

I don't really care - if I can remove half a gig of files from my C: drive,
I'm happy regardless of what the inventory says. Now I'm just waiting to
hear whether the OP (ambrozy) has managed to do the same. Do you happen to
know what the equivalent procedure is on Vista and/or Win7?
--
Noel

FWIW, the experience is (so far) the same if I redirect to an external USB
drive. Looks like it can be done.
--
Noel

"Ildhund" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Well, when I discovered how immoderately much space WLContacts were
> taking on my hard-pressed C: drive, I did experiment with using a
> symbolic link to fool WLMail into thinking that that link to a folder on
> my D: drive was in fact my contacts folder. This seems to work and has
> saved almost half a GB. I haven't yet detected any faults with doing it
> like this (although there is the briefest of delays when accessing
> contacts), so if anyone else wants to try it, here's the procedure for XP
> (there may be a similar function in Vista and 7 - something to do with
> junctions, I believe):
>
> With WLMail and WLMessenger closed down,
> 1. Copy the Windows Live Contacts folder to its new location. (I haven't
> yet tried with an external drive.)
> 2. Rename the old folder to, say, Windows Dead Contacts.
> 3. Open two Explorer windows. In one, locate the new folder. In the
> other, locate the folder called %userprofile%\Nethood.
> 4. Right-click and hold on the new folder, and drag it to the Nethood
> folder. In the context menu that appears when you release the mouse
> button, select 'Create shortcut here'.
> 5. Copy that shortcut to the same folder that Windows Dead Contacts are
> in. Rename the shortcut Windows Live Contacts.
> 6. Restart WLMail and take it for a whirl.
> 7. When you're satisfied that all's well, delete the Windows Dead
> Contacts folder. You can check the Properties sheet for one of the {GUID}
> folders in the bogus folder to satisfy yourself that its contents are
> actually somewhere else.
> 8. Don't blame me if it all goes pearshaped.
>
> Of course, one could always move one's %userprofile% to another drive (
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314843 ), but I haven't dared try that.
> --
> Noel
>
> "...winston" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> Let me know too
>
>> "Ildhund" <> wrote in message
>> news:#2#...
>>> "ambrozy" <> wrote in message
>>> news:FA30338E-2CAA-400D-B539-...
>>>> Hello,
>>>> I need to change the default Windows Live Contacts folder location to
>>>> another drive.
>>>> How can I do it ?
>>>
>>> I don't think you can. If there is no WLC folder in your %userprofile%,
>>> WLMail will create one next time you start the program.
>>> I'll let you know if I find a workaround.
>
>
>