Windows 10 lacking proper support for libraries?

Hello all,

Since libraries were introduced in Windows 7 I've used them extensively. I tend to have a very organised file system and dislike how many applications use the default documents folders (instead of AppData) as a dumping ground for settings and projects. Having never put anything in my default documents folder I already have over twenty folders in it from various vendors, ranging from game saves, to certificate backups, to error logs, to benchmark results, to Office templates, to Visual Studio project files. In short, it's a mess.

My solution to this clutter in Windows 7 was to unlink the default documents (and music/videos etc) from the libraries and set my own folder (for example E:\Documents). This way the only stuff that went into my documents folder were documents I put there. Furthermore, in Windows 7, libraries werethe main way to access your documents folders; basically every "Documents" link in explorer linked to the library instead of the user folder.

In Windows 10... well, it's awful. Libraries are basically an afterthought and every link in explorer or the start menu appears to be hardcoded to navigate to the user folder (Edit- I've just noticed I can enable Libraries links in the navigation pane, so ignore that part of the screenshot). Likewise with the start menu, there're some folders with nice icons I can add via the personalisation menu, but these all also redirect to the user folder.

Please tell I'm being an idiot and there's something that I can do to make all these shortcuts redirect to my libraries....

Here's a couple of screenshots in case it's not clear what I'm yammering about.





I'm also aware that I can hide these shortcuts from This PC, but those registry hacks also hide the links from the user folder, which I don't really want to do (since I do occasionally want to access the folders).

Yeah, maybe I should clarify, without a wall of text this time.

I'm able to create and access libraries fine and I'm able to add the libraries shortcut to the navigation pane.

I'm not able to make the folders in the default view in This PC or the integrated folders in the start menu point to libraries. I can obviously pin a libraries folder to the start menu, just as I could create a shortcut to libraries on the desktop, but that's not really what I want.

Is there a way to stop Windows 10 using the hardcoded links to the user folder and instead use the libraries folders?

That's unfortunate, maybe they'll something in the future.

And thanks for the link, I'll check it out!