Windows XP and Vista both came with standard folders for storing user files, My Documents, My Pictures etc. Windows 7 has taken this idea and expanded it into the ultimate in user-friendly organization: libraries!

Windows 7 libraries serve as your one-stop-shop for storing documents, music, pictures, games, etc.

Let’s use the example of pictures, if you’re anything like me. You probably have half a dozen folders on your desktop with random pictures downloaded from e-mails and your digital camera. That’s not to mention all of the folders of old pics you have on your hard drive. (“Where did I put those pictures of little Timmy falling asleep in his birthday cake?”) With a Windows 7 photo library, you can access all of your pictures from one place… without actually moving or re-saving images.

My Pictures will be your PC’s default save location for any new pics you download onto your system. So what about all the other pictures stored in secondary locations? Windows 7 libraries will let you “add” data locations. So when you open the library, all of the data from each of the added locations will appear.

To add a location to your library:

1. Again we’ll use Pictures as the example here. So open your Pictures library and click on the Locations link.


2. You will already have two locations in this window, My Pictures and Public Pictures. To add another location, click on the Add button to the right.


3. Browse to the folder (for example A:\Wedding Pics) that contains the folder you want (not the subfolder like A:\Wedding Pics\Flower Girls Run Amuck that contains the actual pictures) and click Include Folder and then OK.


4. By adding a new location, your pictures will stay in their original place, but you will be able to access them from the Pictures Library. No more sifting through folder after folder of “digit-named” files. Everything is now available in one convenient location. Another nice feature is that any new data you add to A:\Wedding Pics after it is linked to your library will also be available in your Picture Library. This works the same for data and music libraries as well.

You can also include pics from other locations by following these steps:

1. Browse to a picture folder on your hard drive.


2. In the browser window click on the drop down “Include in Library” menu and select which library you would like to add the data to.


3. Browse back to the library to view the newly added pictures from the new location.

Users can also organize pictures in the library without affecting their original placement on your PC. For instance, you can arrange your data by the day it was created, the month, year, or any tags.

Happy sorting!