Reset System Folders location path

Windows 10 Pro 22H2.19045.3086

Trying to help out a colleague with his much belated move up from Win 7.

The properties of the System Folders, as listed under the ‘This PC’ section in the File Explorer display show some point to path location c:/users/admin/documents while others point to c:/users/admin/OneDrive.

It’s a mess and I don’t know how it got that way.

I first noticed the problem when I saved a word document and could never find it when looking for it in the system’s documents folder via File Explorer.

I do not wish to use OneDrive (which remains logged out) and any data stored there is very minimal and can be moved manually or lost if necessary.

I am also not in a position to clean install the system as it’s an older system and drivers are not readily available.

I would like advice please as to the best and quickest way to reset all location paths for those system folders under ‘This PC’ to their default location which should be c:\users\admin\documents. (Also any implications and gotchas).

I am aware of Shawn’s Tutorial Add or Remove Folders from This PC in Windows 10 but don’t know enough to know if that is the best solution in this particular case.

Ps. I did try to change the location properties on one of those folders from OneDrive to ..admin/documents but it complained that a folder by that name already existed and wouldn’t allow it (sigh).

Thanks for help with this.

Thanks for your reply.

Q. Will following that tutorial disabling OnDrive integration reset the system folder paths to c:\users\admin\documents as I'm wanting?

Further supporting information..

Admin is the main user account on the computer. It is a Local Account with Administrator Authority and password protected.
Here is the list of Users from the File Explorer:

All looks good there.

Here is a shot from File Explorer which is where the problem with the folder location path locations are mixed up:


The Documents folder path eg. Points to location c:/user/admin/OneDrive whereas the Downloads folder correctly points to c:/user/admin. Typically, all The folders in this display should all use the same path of c:/user/admin. That’s the problem.

Question is how can I reset those folders to all be using the correct path.( c:/user/admin)?

Hopefully that makes sense.

Megahertz said:

Right click on the library, properties and item and change the path
Move Location of Documents Folder in Windows 10

Thanks for that additional link Megahertz. There is a lot of related discussion in that link which to be honest prevents me from proceeding with those changes until I have a lot clearer understanding of why it was changed in the first place. I discussed the issue with my colleague and he agreed to go with a clean install, since done and which has of course removed the immediate issue.
You have given me enough to want to understand it all a lot more and plan to do some testing on my test system soon as I find time. (I am a long time registered user of Macrium Reflect so will deploy a fall-back strategy).
Again, I very much appreciate your assistance.