How do I get rid of the document-type clutter in the Windows Right-Click New menu?

"Mayayana" on Sat, 17 Feb 2018 11:44:03
-0500 typed in alt.windows7.general the following:
"ultred ragnusen" wrote

| Speaking of "My Documents", "My Pictures", "My Music", "My Programs",
etc.,
| these are great 'ideas' for Microsoft to help the hoi polloi figure out
| where to put their "types" of data.
|
| The fatal flaw in all of them isn't the idea - it's the fact that a
billion
| programs pollute them

That's actually the intention. The personal folders
are designed for people who have no idea where any
of their files are. People don't usually use those
folders. Software uses those folders. Ask someone
if they've backed up their MS Word docs and they'll
likely answer something like, "I don't know, but Word
knows where they are."

The other reason for those folders is because
Windows is designed to be a corporate workstation.
It's made for use by people who are using the computer
to do work and have no right to access anything but
the files they're working on. Normal user file restrictions
block access to just about everything else. The only
unrestricted access in in the personal app data folders.

So the idea is that a corporate lackey opens Word,
writes a doc, saves it, sends it, or re-edits it.....
as their job requires..... and never needs to access
anything but Word itself to do all that. People are
not intended to understand anything further.

On a tangent, years ago I cam across a bit of historical detail.
From an English companion to the Latin Mass circa 14th Century

"Answer at 'sid malum' amen There is no reason for this thee to
kenn Those who con it not are lewd men." (If memory serves) The first
documented use of "You were not meant to understand this."
--
pyotr filipivich
Next month's Panel: Graft - Boon or blessing?

wrote:

That's actually the intention. The personal folders
are designed for people who have no idea where any
of their files are.

I agree with you Mr. Mayayana, in that way before the "My Stuff" stuff even
existed, I used to complain that Microsoft didn't have a default place to
put your data.

In those days (Win95? Win2K? I don't remember) most people just scattered
the root directory with stuff because there was no clear concept of a user
keeping data separate from applications and operating systems.

So clearly, the "My Stuff" folders help the proletariat "find" their stuff,
where I posit that 90% of the complexity of Windows is an attempt by
Redmond to help people find their stuff (which is sad, because if the
populace realized that all they have to do is put their stuff "where it
belongs", they'd know where to find it).

People don't usually use those folders.

Oh. Uh? Really? I thought they did? (I don't use them, but I thought they
were there for people to use????)

Software uses those folders.
Oh. OK. Well, that stinks.

Programs should litter on their own back yards, not mine.

If I create a "C:\data\audio\songs" hierarchy, I don't want any program
littering that directory unless it's to put a song there that I told it to
put there.

Ask someone
if they've backed up their MS Word docs and they'll
likely answer something like, "I don't know, but Word
knows where they are."

That's sad. I agree that /every/ stinking program has a different default
for where it "puts stuff", where what I care about is the stuff that I care
about.

That means if I "create" a document, then it goes in the place I want it to
go in, but, if it's a program setup or default or browser profile, I don't
change that location unless I change the profile.

The horror of that method is that you find yourself learning too much about
programs in order to tweak each one in a different way to change the
default place it stores setup files. I've done that for browsers, for
example, which eventually drove me nuts, e.g., with custom user.js and
bookmarks files.

So now, my browser setup rule is store nothing whatsoever in the browser
profile directory that you care about. Keep bookmarks separate if you use
them, but each of my browsers only goes to a single web site, so, for me,
that only means to set the START URL to the one web site that the browser
is allowed to visit.

Of course, that means I have almost a score of browsers, but, it turns out,
I only go to about a dozen web sites, so, a dozen browsers are all that I
need.

The other reason for those folders is because
Windows is designed to be a corporate workstation.

Yes. I used to decry, way back when, oh, maybe Win95 or 2K days, that we
didn't have "users" like we did on UNIX.

It's a good idea for Windows to have users; just like it's a good idea to
live on a busy NYC street; but it's a bad idea that programs pollute them
like passersby aimlessly litter your front stoop in NYC.

It's made for use by people who are using the computer
to do work and have no right to access anything but
the files they're working on.

This makes sense but it still doesn't stop all the programs from littering
your front steps, which is the real problem.

Normal user file restrictions
block access to just about everything else. The only
unrestricted access in in the personal app data folders.

Yes, but still, that's not the problem. The problem is that all the
programs aimlessly litter any directory they know about, which are all the
Microsoft-created directories.

So you can either clean up their litter, day in and day out, or just store
your stuff in your back yard where the passesrsby don't litter.

So the idea is that a corporate lackey opens Word,
writes a doc, saves it, sends it, or re-edits it.....
as their job requires..... and never needs to access
anything but Word itself to do all that.

Yes. Defaults work great. Until they don't.
How many times have you seen someone save a file one moment, and then spend
ten minutes trying to find it later?

That never happens when you use the same location for your files that
you've used for the past 20 years. You know exactly where the file will be
even before you put it there.

People are
not intended to understand anything further.

True. So true. Sad. But true.
Those are the hoi polloi. The unwashed masses. People on iOS newsgroups.

They're
certainly not intended to open Windows Explorer and
start poking around in folders.

Understood. The proles don't know how to put things where they belong,
which requires THINKING ahead of time where they belong.

So software is doing
what it's supposed to do, following Microsoft's
"best practice" guidelines by storing files in your
personal folder unless you specify otherwise.

Yup. It's worse than just the files you care about though, as any one
program can pollute your folders any way it likes, such as what VIM
apparently did to my user folder just now.
http://wetakepic.com/images/2018/02/...ard0245817.jpg

In message , ultred
ragnusen writes:
[]
You seem to be using a different meaning for this term "libraries" than I
am familiar with. Maybe others are confused also?

The term does have a specific and technical meaning within Windows 7 and
beyond. I don't profess to understand it; it comes in the same sort of
area as "links", especially "hard links". If you look back in the
archives of the 7 newsgroup [yes I know they don't exist (-:], you'll
find many informative posts, from Paul and others, on the subject.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Our thorny national debate about Brexit could turn out to be irrelevant.
Sooner or later the EU as we know it may no longer be there for us to leave.
- Katya Adler, BBC Europe editor (RT, 2017/2/4-10)

In message , ultred ragnusen
writes:
[]
That's sad. I agree that /every/ stinking program has a different default
for where it "puts stuff", where what I care about is the stuff that I care
about.
[]
No, a lot of them use the _same_ defaults - the "My" areas.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Our thorny national debate about Brexit could turn out to be irrelevant.
Sooner or later the EU as we know it may no longer be there for us to leave.
- Katya Adler, BBC Europe editor (RT, 2017/2/4-10)

ultred ragnusen wrote:

How do we remove useless clutter in the Windows "Right-Click New" command?
http://www.bild.me/bild.php?file=1364896Clipboard01.jpg

Windows Update bricked my old hard drive so I'm forced to set up Microsoft
Windows again, starting from scratch, on a new blank hard drive.

All I ever want is:
a. New Folder
b. New Shortcut
c. New Text Document

That's it. Nothing more than that. Forever.
How do I get rid of the other clutter in the Windows Right-Click New menu?

Just my luck, once I get it all cleaned up, installing MS Office 2007 Pro
today caused more doc-type clutter in my "new" menu!
http://wetakepic.com/images/2018/02/24/officeaddons.jpg

See details at:
SOLVED: How to download an ISO image for Office 2007 Pro in the year 2018
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!to...al/7ru4_AyhPCY