After about a week of excitement and playing around with features, I decided it was time to start optimizing and making this thing run the way I wanted. The first thing I noticed was that I could not use my SD card with my Libraries, so all my apps are going to by default save to the local SSD, which is far from what I want. I knew there had to be a way around this, so I started digging in. I feel I finally have it to the point where others should be doing the same thing, and once done, you can forget about it.

Create a VHDX and save it on the SD card

Create directories on this VHD for your specific libraries Documents Music Video Pictures

Configure the libraries

Enable Indexing on the VHDX – This is important because the Photos app doesn’t work right without it.

Have a script automatically Attach the VHD on Boot

If you would like to know the exact steps to take, please continue reading.

Creating a VHD

Open Charms Menu (Swipe in from the right side of the screen) Click Settings Click Tiles Change “Show administrative tools” to Yes Swipe from the bottom of the screen Click All apps Under “Administrative Tools” click Computer Management Click “Disk Management” Click “Action” Click “Create VHD” Browse to the SD Card’s storage and name the VHD whatever you want Allocate as much of the SD’s storage you want to this VHD, You can decide between Fixed or Dynamically expanding. I went with Dynamically expanding. Find the newly created disk in the lower panel, which should be “Disk 2” Right-click where it says “Disk 2” Click “Initialize Disk” Click OK Right-click “Unallocated” Click “New Simple Volume…” Click “Next >” Click “Next >” Select the Drive letter you want (can be anything) Click “Next >” Name the Volume whatever you want Click “Next >” Click “Finish”

Create/Configure Library Directories on VHD

Click the “Libraries” icon from the “Task Bar” Single click “Documents” Click “Manage under “Library Tools” from the ribbon Click “Manage library” Click “Add” Browse to the newly Attached VHD you just created Click “New Folder” Name it whatever you want (Eg: Documents) DO NOT OPEN THE FOLDER, select the folder and click “Include folder” Remove the Default Personal folder Click OK Click “Set save location” Select the newly created folder Repeat steps 1-13 for the following Music Pictures Videos

Enable Indexing on VHD – Very Important

Open the “Charms Menu” Click “Search” Type “Indexing Options” Click Settings Open “Indexing Options” Click “Modify” Select the newly Attached VHD Click OK Click Close

Create Script to Auto Attach on Startup

Open PowerShell as an Administrator Type “Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned” Press Enter Type “y” Press Enter Click Computer from the navigation bar on the left of the Libraries folder Open the C: Drive Create a new folder named “PoSH” Double click the new folder Right-click in the white area and navigate to “New > Text Document” Name it Auto-Mount.ps1 Open the new file with Notepad Paste the below code in, don’t forget to modify the red text to the path you saved the VHDX file at “Mount-DiskImage D:\YourVHD.vhdx” Open the “Charms Menu” Click “Search” Type “Task Scheduler” and open it Click “Task Scheduler Library” Click “Action” Click “Create Task…” General Tab Name: Attach SD VHD Location: \ Description: This is the Task that automatically attaches the VHD file on the SD card on system boot. “Click Change User or Group…” type in SYSTEM Check “Run with highest privileges” Triggers Tab Click “New…” Begin the task: At startup Click OK Action Tab Action: Start a program Program/script: C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe Add arguments: C:\PoSH\Auto-Mount.ps1 Click “OK” Conditions Tab Under Power uncheck “Start the task only if the computer is on AC power Click “OK” Have fun testing. I recommend opening the Camera app and taking some pictures, making sure it index the new ones, try adding music to the folder make sure it shows up in the music app, the same thing for the Video app.

Update 12-30-2012: Thank you, Don, for reminding me you need to set the execution policy on the machine first.