11 Responses to “What is the Public Folder & How to Use it?”

  • ko57 says:

    Recently installed a program, has a free trial(have this on laptop, it’s safe, good), but noticed it loaded in a public folder. Could I move that folder & contents into my regular user file before or after the trial?
    I noticed another program update is in a public folder, I am the sole user of my computers (laptop & tablet), I don’t have a “network”, no one else uses them.

  • Fitzcarraldo says:

    This article is a good introduction to the Public folder and its subfolders. I had wanted to reference a decent, concise article on the Windows Public folder in my blog post about SMB networking, and this is by far the best I came across. I could not find anything by Microsoft itself, which is surprising.

  • Jason says:

    Anyone having issues with public folder not being accessible on a local network since Windows 10 Anniversary Update that rolled out this month – August 2016? Any solutions for that?

  • tabitha says:

    How can I access these folders from my phone?

    • Fitzcarraldo says:

      See the article ‘How to Access Shared Windows Folders on Android, iPad, and iPhone’ on the How-To Geek Web site. I use ES File Explorer on my Android tablet and smartphone to access the Public folders on my computers.

  • Harry Forder says:

    I may be missing the point entirely, but HOW do I place a folder in the ‘Public Documents’ part of the ‘Documents library’?
    Using the ‘Include in Library function always places the folder in the C/users/(my name) part of the library.

  • amco2000 says:

    Can I just delete all public folders in Win 7, they just clutter up my file trees and cause confusion !?!

    • Ciprian Adrian Rusen says:

      Just remove them from the standard libraries. Not sure if deleting them won’t cause any issues.

  • starzzguitar says:

    They should have just called the “Public” folder “Shared on Network” to avoid all the time I spent trying to share an item on my home network and not knowing how to do it. I have no use for Libraries either.

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