My brain's visual map of Windows 7

Hannibal Lecter introduced me to the concept of using a many-roomed palace in one's mind to store and retrieve memories.

I didn't do anything with this information other than note that it was interesting. I didn't know at the time that this was not a construct of author Thomas Harris, but a method used as far back by ancient Greeks and Romans.

Anyway: My laptop's operating system is Windows 7. My desktop's operating system was Windows XP. With XP, I had a visual map of how and where my folders - documents, photos, music - were stored. With Windows 7, it's kind of a jumble.

This is because Windows wants to be helpful. In its attempt to be helpful, it assumes I like to share with others. So it's got the Home Group thing, the Public Folders thing, and on top of that, the Libraries thing.  

I didn't take the time to read any tutorials or other helpful guides from the start, assuming incorrectly that 7 would be intuitive, and now I've got to slow down, pull out the virtual version of a state map, unfold it, and read. And think. And do some little practice drives.

One thing I've already discovered is that it looks like I'm stuck with the Home Groups folder in my Windows Explorer (a term I've never liked and which, by the way, said title does NOT appear on its window, to my further consternation). I'm also stuck, evidently, with the Favorites folder in my Explorer.

So there are nonpaying squatters in my Explorer house, cluttering up my visual space.

And this Libraries business means I have mirrors of stuff stashed in two or more places. For example, I might have the same subfolder appear on Windows Explorer in its home folder, plus its mirrors in Favorites, in Home Groups, in a Library, and in a Public Folder. 

For now, all this "help" makes my brain hurt, as I can't get a clean visual picture of the folder organization in my head. Yet. But I'm working on it.