Is there a way to move all the CorelDraw folders shown under Tools -> Options -> Global -> File Locations tab (see screen shot) to another location without manually editing each one of the 22 folders individually (or at least all that start with c:\users\<username>\documents\Corel)? If so, how?
Related: is there a way to stop Corel from recreating those folders in my Documents folder, even if they are not used (I prefer to limit the number of root folders in my Documents folder so they all fit in the Windows file dialog without scrolling)?
To repeat this across multiple PC's, are these file locations stored in a file or the registry somewhere I can export and apply the updates to other PC's with CDGS installed to quickly perform the same move across all systems? If so, how?
Secondarily (but less important), does Corel use those folders for temp files while working, config data that should be copied across all my PC's, static data like fonts and clipart, or something else? I don't need to know, but am curious to understand what these folders are used for and it may affect where I decide to put them.
Full disclosure, I had posted a similar question before, but likely worded it poorly because I just got a bunch of unhelpful opinions and arguments instead of an answer to the question (to be fair, I started it by including my own opinion in my question): https://community.coreldraw.com/talk/coreldraw-graphics-suite-2021/f/coreldraw-graphics-suite-2021-for-windows/66338/what-does-corel-do-with-all-the-folders-created-in-documents-any-way-to-move-all-at-once.
GraniteStateColin said:To repeat this across multiple PC's, are these file locations stored in a file or the registry somewhere
I don't know if these are exclusively stored in the registry, but I do see them in the registry. As an example, for CorelDRAW 2018:
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Corel\CorelDRAW\20.0\Box Preferences\File Locations.
@Eskimo, that's perfect. Thank you!!
That is exactly the correct list. It has the identical set of 22 folders that can be set through the Tools menu. In hindsight, I suppose I should have just searched the registry for those pathnames. :-)
So to anyone else looking to move all the Corel folders out of Documents with a single operation, instead of manually altering each of the 22 folders (21 in C:\Users\<username>\Documents\Corel\Corel Content\ and 1 in C:\Users\Colin\OneDrive\Documents\Working Files\), you can do the following:
Of course, if you're just trying to move this off your C:\ drive, which I suspect is another fairly common preference, you need only change the C: to D: (or whatever drive letter you're using) in your search and replace.
If you run CDGS on multiple computers, assuming you have the same directory structure on all of them, you can now just copy and run the same .REG file on every computer. Note that if you upgrade to a new version of CorelDraw, the version number in the Registry pathname will need to change. In that case, to be safe, probably best to repeat the above steps, rather than try modifying your file, because a new version could also include new folders.
Remember where you stashed your files, afterv30 years of using CorelDRAW I'd lay odds that a future update affecting those files makes a mess of stuff.
One caveat on this: I see that Corel still recreates the Corel folder in Documents (but fortunately not the "Working Files" folder). It has remained empty in my usage, vs. the 1+ GB of fonts and other files that it installed originally and moved to the new location. Worse, if you have a default "Documents" configuration, meaning your Documents folder is on OneDrive, it appears that Corel sets this to be a shared folder. I'll continue to investigate this, but it appears that while the above does indeed move the files, Corel still maintains a folder in Users\<username>\Documents\Corel, and assigns permissions and sharing without user permission. I suspect this is harmless, but it's annoying.
GraniteStateColin said:I suppose I should have just searched the registry for those pathnames
If you explore the Registry, then you might want to look at RegScanner - just one of many useful tools from Nir Sofer.
Please post any other irregularities you find?
You got me racking my brain on this and back in my rusty cranium somewhere there's a beep going off about sharing not only between machine but multiple user log in on the same machine.
I know it will rise to the surface someday.