DANNY CHANG NEW YORK
Go away, Microsoft. Remove annoying “Microsoft User Data” Folder.
Lots of Designers use Mac as their work machine, and lots of designers are a bit clean freak like me. Therefore, it’s really hard to swallow when Microsoft try to put an useless “Microsoft User Data” Folder in Documents Folder.(Usually it’s where we put our projects in).
Therefore, today I decided to research for the solution on this. (to fix this annoying problem since years ago)
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This is the window you usually see when you have Microsoft 2008 or 2004 installed. The “Microsoft User Data” Folder will always be there no matter how many times you have removed it. It will be automatically recreated every time you open an Microsoft product on your mac. It’s VERY VERY annoying.
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Thankfully, this is the solution. Simply move “Microsoft User Data” folder from “Documents” to Users/ (YOUR USER NAME)/Library/Preferences/
DONE!! You will never see that annoying folder again in your Documents Folder. Thank god. :p
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about 1 year ago
thank you so much i have wanted to get that annoying thing out for years.
about 1 year ago
Dear Danny Chang,
Thank you so much for posting such a valuable tip. Enough is enough with Microsoft intrusive practices. The Documents folder belongs to the user, not to Microsoft. I have no choice but to use their products because my institution cannot get rid of them. The least they could do as they enter the Mac users world is to have some respect for the prevailing practices within that community.
Again, thank you so much. Wishing you good luck with your studies.
JF
about 1 year ago
Thank you so much… I would have given up researching the fix for this, if I hadn’t found your site!
about 1 year ago
Nice! – 100 times better than the other hits you might see for this problem
about 1 year ago
Finally!!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH! fckin dumb asseholes of microsoft.
about 1 year ago
You are my hero! Thank you!
about 1 year ago
Worked like a charm on my MBP and Office 2011. Thanks
about 1 year ago
Tried on MBP with Office 2011, but after using messenger it comes back
about 1 year ago
I can not thank you enough for solving this annoying problem that I’ve dealt with for years! My CDO (OCD in alphabetical order) couldn’t handle it!
about 1 year ago
danny,
i never would drop a single line in a forum ever – this tip however solves a bummer !
I can do little but add my thankfulness to the already astonishingly long list.
about 1 year ago
Thank you for your help. It was really very annoying.
about 1 year ago
Well sadly it doesn’t seem to be working here ;(
Moved it, reopened messenger and guess what…
about 11 months ago
thank you so much!! yes, it was freaking annoying! pfff!
about 11 months ago
Big Thanks You!!!
It`s incredible but really works!
Thanks
about 9 months ago
Thank you Danny Chang!!! That folder has annoyed me beyond all belief. You are my hero!
about 9 months ago
Capo!, si funciona. Ahhhh gracias a dios.
about 9 months ago
This works for the document creation tools in office but not for messenger or communicator.
about 7 months ago
Thank you. Can’t believe the sneaky MS guys to put their annoying useless stupid crap folders into the documents folder reserved for the user!!!! What were they thinking?
about 7 months ago
You rock. Thank you so much for this tip.
about 7 months ago
Thank you! Written in such a witty way, but so so helpful.
about 6 months ago
cool! thanks a lot!
about 6 months ago
THANK YOU!
about 6 months ago
Does this work with Mac OS X Lion?
about 5 months ago
Has anyone else had an issue with Spotlight not showing Outlook information after doing this?
about 5 months ago
Thank you. Freakin life saver. I hate microsoft!
about 5 months ago
oh god thank you so much.
about 5 months ago
Thank you so much for this. One of the principal reasons that I switched to a Mac was because I got tired of the entire system being a giant mess. I had to install Office 2011 and naturally it had explosive diarrhea all over my machine. I’ve been working for days to clean it up and your tip was extremely helpful.
about 5 months ago
Thanks!
When will this ******* company finally retain to best practices?
about 5 months ago
Thanks very much! It really helps and is far far better that other solutions.
about 5 months ago
Thankyou so much! Very appreciated
about 5 months ago
Another option (from the terminal):
chflags hidden ~/Documents/Microsoft\ User\ Data
about 4 months ago
Hiding the folder is an option (using setflag -a V is also another option). But pretty much that doesn’t remove the fact that the folder should be at Preferences instead of documents. Autodesk does the same with its folders, adding extra folders on Documents and User folder, but with Autodesk the only option is to hide the folder. at least Microsoft User Data can still be moved.
For Mac OSX Lion it does work, but remember that on Lion the Library Folder of the User directory has been hidden on Finder, so to get access to the {User Folder}/Library/Preferences you need to use Shift+Cmd+G and Type “~/Library/Preferences” and then copy the folder to there.
about 3 months ago
Hi Diogo,
Does moving the thing actually work in OS X Lion, or is it merely an assumption that it would?
Thanks
about 3 months ago
Thank YOU!
Also thanks to Diogo #32 for posting the tip about the hidden folder in Lion!
about 2 months ago
Thank you! May clutter be vanquished one blog post at a time.
about 1 month ago
Works in other languages too. In my case Spanish.
about 1 month ago
It showed up again (using Lion). Arghhh!
about 1 month ago
Think I fixed it. Thanks #32
about 1 week ago
Excelent!!!