Library

Libraries are a way to store and manage documents, music, pictures and other files. Libraries can be browsed in the same way as any folder. The key difference is that the library is not a folder in itself, but instead monitors other folders. The contents of these folders can all be shown in the same page, using the library. Libraries are available in Windows 7 and later.

Description

There are 4 default libraries in a user's folder: Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos. A fifth library, Recorded TV, is located in the Public folder.

Creating a new library

1. Open the Libraries folder in Windows Explorer (click on the folders icon pinned to the taskbar, press Shift first if another folder is already opened.)
2. Click the New library button near the top left of the screen in the toolbar.
3. Type the name of your library and click enter.
4. Before you can use it, you must include a folder.

Include folders in a library

Either:

1. Right-click the folder you want to include in the library
2. Select Include in Library
3. Choose the library from the list.

Or:

1. Navigate to the Libraries folder
2. Right click on the library you want to add a folder to, and click Properties
3. Click Include a Folder
4. Select the folder you want to include, then click Include Folder.

Remove a folder from a library

1. Navigate to the Libraries folder
2. Right click on the library you want to add a folder to and click Properties
3. Select the folder you want to remove
4. Click Remove.

Set the save location of a library

1. Navigate to the Libraries folder
2. Right click on the library you want to set the save location for
3. Select the folder you want to set as the save location
4. Click Set Save Location.

Change the type of file a library is set up for

1. Navigate to the Libraries folder
2. Right click on the library you want to modify and click Properties
3. In the Optimize this Library for list, select the file type
4. Click OK.

When a library is deleted

The library itself will be moved to the Recycle Bin, however the folders and their contents will still be in their original locations. If you delete any of the default libraries, they can be restored by right-clicking Libraries and selecting Restore Default Libraries. If you delete files or folders within a library, they are deleted from their original locations, and they will no longer be available in the library.

Which file locations are supported

On your C Drive	Yes
On another hard drive or partition inside your computer	Yes
On an external hard drive	Yes (although files wont appear when not plugged in)
On a USB flash drive	If it appears under Hard Disk Drives in my computer (this is set by the manufacturer) then see external hard drive, otherwise no.
CD or DVD etc.	No
On a network	See below
On a different computer in your homegroup	Yes

Adding a folder from a NAS device

Libraries do not, at present, natively support NAS (Network attached storage) folders because of the way they are indexed. So far there are four known work-arounds which are not fully tested.

• Set the folders as a folder to watch in Windows Media Player (This adds them to the Pictures and Music libraries)
• Use the offline files feature to make the files available offline, then add to the library. (Not available in all editions of Windows 7)
• Use the mklink command to create a Symbolic link (If you don't want to store the files locally this is the only available method.)
• If the 'NAS' is a computer, then a Windows OS could be installed. Both Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7 allow for inclusion in the libraries.

Using the mklink command to create a Symbolic link

This is another method for adding NAS folders to libraries. Note that it is not tested on the official release of Windows 7, and therefore may yield unexpected results.

1. Create a folder on your hard drive for each NAS folder you want to add to a library. For this example I will use c:\Shares\MyShareName
2. Add the new folder to your library using windows explorer in the standard way.
3. Delete the folder using Command Prompt.
4. use the mklink command to create the symbolic link with the local name and the name on your share, for example, if my server was called Server001 and the share on it was called MyShareName I would use: mklink /D MyShareName \\.Server001\MyShareName

Note that to use this command you will need to run Command Prompt as an administrator.

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