Default File locations

[Entwood]

Hi, very much a newbie here, but slowly losing my rag with Corel so called customer service, who, it appears do nothing but send out template answers without reading the question ..

Quite simple really (IMHO), I have just purchased and installed Paint shop pro x9 version 19.1.0.29 x64 and it instantly put a folder with around 30 sub folders into "My Documents" ... brushes, bump maps etc etc. Now, as these are NOT documents they don't belong in "My documents" so i wish to move them .. simple it seems .. copy and paste the foler to its new location, then into preferences / file locations and move them .. pain in the **** as each one has to be moved individually, but work through moving them to their new location, delete the folder from "My Documents" and all is good......... until ...

I restart PSP when the folder in "My Documents" is rebuilt completely so what a waste of time .... plus .. the files now exist in the new place as well .. so THREE copies of everything !!

All I want to know is, how do I change the default location of these files ?? Customer service (??) have so far sent six template answers .. ranging from deleting temporary files, to a full reinstall of windows .. without actually stating if the default location can be moved. If this is not sorted by the end of the week then the software is going and I'll claim my money back. I'll not have my documents folder cluttered up with stuff simply because thats what Corel want. Photoshop is not as good, but it will suffice and it does NOT force me to have stuff cluttering up my system.

So, rant over, PLEASE . is it possible to move the DEFAULT location of all these files PERMANENTLY, and if so ... how ???

Regards and thanks

E

[hartpaul]

There is no answer to changing permanently the location of user generated files from the Documents folder.
Yes the folders there are created by the program for Brushes, scripts , Picture Tubes etc. But they are user created files put into those folders.
If you create a word document the default folder for that to be saved in is Documents.
So if you create a picture tube why should that not also go into a folder in Documents.
Yes you can put those Brushes etc in another location and direct PSP to find them there, but it will still keep a set of folders in the Documents folder.
If you need to backup your computer files to move to a new system then one of the folders you back up is your documents as it is supposed to contain all user created files. And isn't a picture tube or new brush a user created file.
If you place those files in some other esoteric location then you may forger to back them up and then the next complaint would be how can I recover my lost picture tubes , brushes etc.
Finally how does the folder being in the documents really upset your day? and why?

Your PSP X9 also needs some update(s) . There are 4 and the fully updated program should be 19.2.0.7

[Ken Berry]

Unlike hartpaul, I see no logic in having these folders in Documents. Yes, they hold user created files, but so do Pictures, Music and Video. I have never understood why a folder for a third party program like Video Studio or PaintShop Pro is not created in a Windows library folder appropriate to the output of a particular program.

That being said, I have learned to live with it after quite a few years now. And it is not just Corel which does it. My Documents folder also holds folders created by Adobe (though in this case Premiere Elements, but not Photoshop); Blackmagic; Cyberlink; NewBlue; Sony; and a number of other non-document-related programs.

[ehume]

I would like to back up Ken. I compare the results of computer hardware for various review. My USB thermometer logs its results in a My Documents folder. So it's not just photo software that does this.

[LeviFiction]

Considering that not every resource of PSP can clearly be defined as being one type of file or another, brushes and textures are images while scripts are documents and plugins are programs, you either end up putting them in a location that makes no sense at all or splitting them up amongst many locations. For me, these may not be text documents but they are document resources for PSP and so it makes sense. Just because PSP itself is an image editor would not incline me to put all resources in the pictures directory.

Luckily you can change the default location but you have to change it in the registry.

The key you're looking for is located in
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Corel\PaintShop Pro\X9\

It's called

DefaultWrite

Simply change this folder location to where you want PSP to dump all of those user resource folders (it must be writeable by the user without the need for admin privileges) and PSP will create the appropriate folders and add the file locations to match. You'll have to clean up after the previous location but you've already done that once.

[Entwood]

Considering that not every resource of PSP can clearly be defined as being one type of file or another, brushes and textures are images while scripts are documents and plugins are programs, you either end up putting them in a location that makes no sense at all or splitting them up amongst many locations. For me, these may not be text documents but they are document resources for PSP and so it makes sense. Just because PSP itself is an image editor would not incline me to put all resources in the pictures directory.

Luckily you can change the default location but you have to change it in the registry.

The key you're looking for is located in
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Corel\PaintShop Pro\X9\

It's called

DefaultWrite

Simply change this folder location to where you want PSP to dump all of those user resource folders (it must be writeable by the user without the need for admin privileges) and PSP will create the appropriate folders and add the file locations to match. You'll have to clean up after the previous location but you've already done that once.

You SIR, are a genius !!! Although a pain to have to work through every setting for every user, the system is now set up how I want it to be !! I guessed it would be something simple, but just needed "someone who knew" .. and it was you !!

Perhaps you would like to inform Corel Customer Support how easy it is to a) read a question, b) provide a written answer that works ... instead of simply hitting template answers that have no relevance ... the "latest" from AK (corel) - whoever they are .. requires me to send them "In order to properly assess the circumstances at hand, I require a copy of your MSINFO32 report and a WinAudit report from your Windows OS." .. this follows the recommendations for: a clean boot; a full corel uninstall / clean / reinstall; a remote access link to allow "a technician to analyse your problem"; delete temporary files; resetting Corel Paintshop Pro; and the original .. apply a hotfix they sent .. none of which ever had any chance of working.

I'm also surprised that they sent me an out of date version -and that clicking updates told me none were available... yet this forum shows me that an update has been available since 2017 !! Now installed.

As you can guess .. my opinion of Customer support is presently extremely low !!

Once again .. many , many thanks

E

[SJS]

I relocated my default Windows "Documents" to another hard drive. This copied my Corel folders, etc. and Windows and other apps seem to find things OK.

BUT I had not noticed that Corel PSP was open at the time I made this change! NOW when I start PSP 2022 it creates an whole new Documents folder on my C: drive, with the usual Corel folders, and thinks it is a whole new install without my preferences, etc.

I want it to use my Windows Documents folder on the other drive. Having two Docs folders is too crazy making and will mess up my FileHistory backups I think.

Perhaps if I reinstall PSP after deleting this unwanted Docs folder on C: ?

[LeviFiction]

I don't have a second hdd. So I can't test directly. But I imagine you can just change the "DefaultWrite" registry key to point to your new locaation, as mentioned above. Open the registry editor and go to Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Corel\PaintShop Pro\YOuRVERSION

It's called "DefaultWrite" and you'll probably want to update the "Purchased" save location as well.

Just make sure PSP is closed before changing these values and when it opens up again it should look in the correct location for your files. I would like to note that PSP2022 = version 24. Or X14 in the registry.

[SJS]

Hmm ... I am running PSP Pro 2022 Ultimate, but I don't see this in the Registry. I only see "X14" under this registry location. And the DefaultWrite key is blank, no Purchase key to be seen...

I see similar X14 under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Corel X14 with additional strings: DefaultRead & Purchased. Will set these also

Still not sure if this fixed it, but maybe....

[SJS]

After complete removal, reinstall, deletion of Registry entries, and starting over with setting my Preferences, I think I am functional with PSP 2022.

No idea why PSP 2022 creates a Registry tree called "X14", but indeed it does, recreating this with the new install after I had deleted it. However with starting fresh I did not have to modify anything in the Registry after all.

Previously I had restored my PSP 2022 user preferences (Documents-->Corel Paintshop Pro) from my old Windows 10 system, which is apparently NOT feasible. Or something else was going that will never be determined...

[LeviFiction]

Because for unknown reasons Corel kept the old X notation rather than just using the full version number. 2022 is version 24. X = 10 in Roman numerals so X14=24.