It’s trivial, but the issue comes up when I write my books: How to refer to that location in the computer’s storage system where you store your files? Windows doesn’t make it easy.
Back in the old days — which is where I usually run to when these types of things come up — no system existed for storing files, not in MS-DOS nor in any other primitive, microcomputer operating system. The storage system, essentially a hard drive and floppy diskettes, was a vast playground upon which you could built a sand castle at any location.
In my early books, I recommended creating separate folders for everything. DOS dwelled in its own folder. Each program automatically installed in its own folder (not under the umbrella of the Program Files folder). Data files were saved in the same folder as the program that created them.
Oh, and folders were known as directories back then.
In the Unix operating system, which I’ve long loved and adored, each user account on the system is given its own home folder. So on my Mac, the home folder is /Users/dang. All the files I create and store are automatically placed into that folder, or — better — into a subfolder within my home folder.
And the most nifty thing about the home folder is how its referred to. It’s the home folder.
So when I write about the Macintosh or Unix, I can say, “Save this item in your home folder, in the Documents subfolder.” That’s cinchy and everyone understands it.
Then there’s Windows.
Because Windows came from DOS and DOS suffered from no organization, an official name for the location in which you place your files doesn’t exist. In fact, that’s the phrase I’ve often used: the location in which you place your files. It stinks.
When Windows 95 came along, it finally designated an official location for your files. It also organized other files and folders, although not as regimented as Unix, it was a step in the right direction: Windows had it own folder as did your programs. But what was the name for the folder where you put your files?
Not the folder name itself; that name is the same as your account name, which is how Unix does it. So if you log in as Dan the folder is named Dan. The path is \Users\Dan.
In many of my books, I referred to the folder as the home folder, even though Windows didn’t. Eventually I learned its real name, the one that Windows internally uses to reference the current user’s storage location: User Profile.
That’s right, the official name of the folder is User Profile, which is referenced internally by the environmental variable %USERPROFILE%. It looked it up. That’s how I know.
The name User Profile sucks.
It requires me more words to explain User Profile and what it is than it would just to say, “Home folder.”
What’s worse: In Windows 10, the preferred nomenclature is User Account, which is easily confused with your sign-in name, your “user account.” That’s not a folder at all.
Please, Microsoft! Just call it the home folder. It’s not like stealing something from another operating system is anything new to you.
