Known Folder Redirection Issues in Windows 11 (tech only)

Upgrading to Windows 11 will enable Known Folder Redirection, which will update paths to Desktop/Document libraries.

For example, without Known Folder Redirection enabled, paths to these folders would be:

C:\users\[username]\Desktop
C:\users\[username]\Documents

With Known Folder Redirection enabled, these paths would change to:

C:\Users\[username]\OneDrive - West Virginia University\Documents
C:\Users\[username]\OneDrive - West Virginia University\Documents

For most users, this change is transparent. For some pieces of software, the path to Desktop/Documents may be hard-coded and has the potential to break these pieces of software until the paths are corrected. This will mainly affect developers who use git, bit bucket, or other versioning tools that may rely on a specific folder path to Desktop/Documents.

To update a broken path, open File Explorer, right-click Desktop or Documents, then select Properties. In the Properties window, select the Location tab and update the location as needed.