Prevent Office 2013 from creating "Custom Office Templates" directory in My Documents

Question

Office 2013 keeps creating the directory C:\Users\user\Documents\Custom Office Templates. I like to keep My Documents tidy for quick access.

Is there anyway to prevent Office from continually re-creating the Custom Office Templates directory after I remove it? Moving it somewhere else would work too. I'm using Windows 7.

This isn't really a solution, but behavior like this from many applications lead me to put the "My Documents" folder on a network share and mount it as read only. I keep a second, writable mountpoint for when I need write access. It's inconvenient, but highly satisfying. — Fopedush, Jun 21 '13 at 00:45

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 21 '13 at 00:54

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According to the answer to the question Custom Template location in Office 2013 on the Microsoft Community forums:

You can choose to override this setting by specifying a Personal Templates Folder. This can be done by going to File > Options > Save and manually entering a folder path. This needs to be done for each application, and for any application that does not have a Personal Templates path manually set, Office will create the Custom Office Templates folder the first time you save a template, and will set the Personal Templates path to this location.

answered Jun 21 '13 at 00:54

Oliver Salzburg

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Awesome, thanks! The original answer wasn't clear but it's specifically called `Default personal template location` in the Save options. – reflexiv Jun 21 '13 at 02:13
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I use Office 2013 but I don't use templates, and this folder location was created for me anyway, even though I never saved any custom templates. My default personal template location search path is empty. I don't mind having an empty folder there. I always leave the Documents or My Documents folder for various applications to use and save my important documents elsewhere. They always clutter up this location so I stopped caring and trying to fix it. – Samir Apr 27 '14 at 20:55

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 25 '17 at 13:12

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Hide the folder under properties. You won't be able to see it but MS Office and Windows can still access it.

Right-click on the directory
Select "Properties"
Check the "Hidden" checkbox under "Attributes"

edited Oct 25 '17 at 13:12

Stevoisiak

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answered Oct 13 '15 at 13:30

Ryan

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How does one do this? I personally know how to do it but the author of the question or other people with similar problems might not know. I could provided this information myself but would rather give you a chance to provide it. – Ramhound Oct 13 '15 at 13:53

score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 06 '15 at 19:29

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I was plagued by this problems for months - constantly deleting "Custom Office Templates" from My Documents only to have the pesky SOB pop up again. Finally I found the solution - when "Custom Office Templates" shows up in your Documents, right click on it, and choose Properties. Click on "Hidden" and voila!!

answered Dec 06 '15 at 19:29

Steve

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But hiding it isn't the same as deleting it. – Chenmunka Dec 07 '15 at 12:32
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This is identical to [Ryan's answer](https://superuser.com/a/986088/358766) – Stevoisiak Oct 25 '17 at 13:11

Prevent Office 2013 from creating "Custom Office Templates" directory in My Documents

3 Answers3