Special folder explained

On Microsoft Windows, a special folder is a folder that is presented to the user through an interface as an abstract concept instead of an absolute folder path. (The synonymous term shell folder is sometimes used instead.) Special folders make it possible for any application to ask the operating system where an appropriate location for certain kinds of files can be found; independently of which version or user language of Windows is being used.

In Windows Server 2003 and earlier, a folder like the "Start Menu" had a different name on non-English versions of Windows. For example, on German versions of Windows XP it is "Startmenü". However, starting with Windows Vista, all versions of Windows use the same English named folders and only display different names in the Windows Explorer. In Windows 10 the user can switch to another display language and the names of the special folders will change.^[1]

Overview

Windows uses the concept of special folders to present the contents of the storage devices connected to the computer in a fairly consistent way that frees the user from having to deal with absolute file paths, which can (and often do) change between operating system versions, and even individual installations. The idea has evolved over time, with new special folders being added in every version of Windows after their introduction in Windows 95.

Microsoft's "Compatible with Windows" software logo^[2] requires that an application make use of special folders locations to locate the appropriate folders in which documents and application settings should be stored.

A special folder can either be a reference to a physical file system directory, or a reference to a "virtual" folder. In the former case, they are analogous to environment variables - in fact, many of the environment variables that are set in a user's session are defined by where the special folders are set to point to.

Virtual folders do not actually exist on the file system; they are instead presented through Windows Explorer as a tree of folders that the user can navigate. This is known as the Shell namespace. On Windows XP systems, the root of this namespace is the Desktop virtual folder, which contains the My Documents, My Computer (Computer from Windows Vista to 8.1 and This PC from Windows 10), My Network Places (Network Neighbourhood in Windows 95 and 98) and Recycle Bin virtual folders. Some virtual folders (like Desktop) have an accompanying special folder that is a reference to a directory on the physical file system. Windows Explorer displays the combined contents of a virtual folder and its associated file system folder to the user. This can be seen in Figure 1, which shows the Folder view in Windows XP's Explorer; in the Desktop virtual folder, the four standard virtual folders can be seen, as well as an additional folder, "a folder on the desktop", which is a real folder located in the Desktop directory in the user's profile.

Some third-party programs add their own virtual folders to Windows Explorer.

List of special folders

The following tables list most of the file system and virtual folders that are available as of Windows Vista. The OS version in which each special folder was introduced is given as well. Items like %USERPROFILE% and %windir% are Windows environment variables.

File system directories

Special folder	Intended purpose	Default Location (in English. Non-English versions of Windows XP or earlier will use directory names appropriate to that language.)	First appeared in OS
AppData	Per-user application-specific files	On Windows 98 and Windows Me: `%windir%\Application Data` On Windows 2000 and Windows XP: `%USERPROFILE%\Application Data` On Windows Vista and later: `%APPDATA%`	98
Briefcase	Files that need to be kept in sync	On Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows Me: `%windir%\Desktop` On Windows 2000 and later, not created by default but can be created in any folder. The Desktop.ini hidden system file inside the Briefcase and the Briefcase Explorer shell extension (SyncUI.dll) contained its functionality. Removed in Windows 10 Version 1703 and later.	95
Contacts	User's contacts	On Windows Vista and later:`%USERPROFILE%\Contacts`	Vista
Cookies	Internet Explorer browser cookies	On Windows 98 and Windows Me: `%windir%\Cookies` On Windows 2000 and later: `%USERPROFILE%\Cookies` On Windows Vista and later: `%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies`	98
Desktop Directory	Files stored on the user's desktop	On Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows Me: `%windir%\Desktop` On Windows 2000 and later: `%USERPROFILE%\Desktop`	95
Favorites	User's Favorites	On Windows 98 and Windows Me: `%windir%\Favorites` On Windows 2000 and later: `%USERPROFILE%\Favorites`	98
Fonts	Container folder for installed fonts	`%windir%\Fonts`	95
History	User-specific browser history	`%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\History`	98
Internet Cache	User-specific Temporary Internet Files	On Windows 98 and Windows Me:`%windir%\Temporary Internet Files` On Windows 2000 and Windows XP:`%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files` On Windows Vista and Windows 7:`%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files` On Windows 8 and later:`%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache`	98
Local Application Data	User-specific and computer-specific application settings	On Windows 98 and Windows Me: `%windir%\Application Data` On Windows 2000 and Windows XP: `%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data` On Windows Vista and later: `%LOCALAPPDATA%`	95
My Documents	User's documents	On Windows 98 and Windows Me: `C:\My Documents` On Windows 2000 and Windows XP: `%USERPROFILE%\My Documents` On Windows Vista and later: `%USERPROFILE%\Documents`	98
My Music	User's music	On Windows 98 and Windows Me: `C:\My Documents\My Music` On Windows 2000 and Windows XP: `%USERPROFILE%\My Documents\My Music` On Windows Vista and later: `%USERPROFILE%\Music`	98
My Pictures	User's pictures	On Windows 98 and Windows Me: `C:\My Documents\My Pictures` On Windows 2000 and Windows XP: `%USERPROFILE%\My Documents\My Pictures` On Windows Vista and later: `%USERPROFILE%\Pictures`	98
My Videos	User's video files	On Windows 98 and Windows Me: `C:\My Documents\My Videos` On Windows 2000 and Windows XP: `%USERPROFILE%\My Documents\My Videos` On Windows Vista and later: `%USERPROFILE%\Videos`	98
Programs	User-specific "(All) Programs" groups and icons	On Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000 and Windows XP: `%USERPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs` On Windows Vista and later: `%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs`	95
Recent	User-specific "My Recent Documents"	On Windows 98: `%USERPROFILE%\Recent` On Windows 2000 and Windows XP: `%USERPROFILE%\My Recent Documents` On Windows Vista and later: `%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent`	98
Send To	User-specific "Send To" menu items	On Windows 98, Windows 2000 and Windows XP: `%USERPROFILE%\SendTo` On Windows Vista and later: `%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo`	98
Start Menu	User-specific "Start Menu" items	On Windows 95: `%windir%\Start Menu` On Windows 98, Windows 2000 and Windows XP: `%USERPROFILE%\Start Menu` On Windows Vista and later: `%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu`	95
System	The Windows system directory	On Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows Me 16-bit and 32-bit libraries and executables: `%windir%\System` Some other 32-bit libraries and executables: `%windir%\System32` On Windows 2000 and later 32-bit Windows editions 32-bit libraries and executables: `%windir%\system32` 16-bit libraries and executables: `%windir%\System` On 64-bit Windows editions 64-bit libraries and executables: `%windir%\System32`^[3] 32-bit libraries and executables: `%windir%\SysWOW64<`	--Yes, 32-bit files are in the directory with 64 at the end-->^[4]	95
Saved Games	User's Saved Games	`%USERPROFILE%\Saved Games`	Vista
Templates	User-specific document templates	On Windows 98 and Windows Me: `%windir%\ShellNew` On Windows 2000 and Windows XP: `%USERPROFILE%\Templates` On Windows Vista and later: `%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Templates`	98

Notes:

The "Desktop" virtual folder is not the same thing as the "Desktop" special folder. The Desktop virtual folder is the root of the Windows Shell namespace, which contains other virtual folders.^[5]
"Local Application Data" differs from "Application Data" in that files located in the "Local" variant are also intended to be specific to the machine it is on. This only has relevance if the user's profile is a Roaming Profile in a Windows Server domain environment.^[6]
As with Desktop, the "My Documents" virtual folder differs from the "My Documents" special folder. If the virtual folder variant is asked for, it will appear in a file dialog as a sub-directory of the "Desktop" virtual folder, instead of the user's profile directory as it physically exists on the hard drive.
If the "My Documents" folder is moved (e.g., to a network drive), attempting to access it via the shell variable will go to the original, default location.

Virtual folders

Virtual Folder	Represents	OS
Recycle Bin	The aggregated contents of the Recycle Bin on all drives for the current user	95
Control Panel	Icons for Control Panel (Windows) applets	95
Desktop	The Windows Desktop	95
Drives	My Computer; contains virtual folders representing everything on the local machine, as well as mapped network drives	95
Internet	Resources located on the Internet; WebDAV connections, etc.	98
My Documents	Virtual folder of the user's My Documents folder; used as a child of the Desktop virtual folder	98
Network	Network Neighborhood (Windows 95 and 98) or My Network Places (Windows 2000 and later); contains virtual folders for representing all network resources	95
Search Results	Listing of the results of the last search of the computer (appears only after a search)	2000^[7]
Printers	Container folder for installed printers	95
Applications	Listing of all installed Applications, including Universal Windows Platform apps.	10