System folder

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Revision as of 08:24, 1 November 2010 by Jeremy Linden (talk | contribs)
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About

A system folder is a special folder in your inventory which has several unique attributes:

  • System folders can't be moved or modified. They always reside in the top-level of your inventory (shown in the My Inventory tab of the My Inventory sidebar). You can't delete, rename, or edit any other system folder properties. Like regular folders, you can put items inside of them.
    • Common usage is to create sub-folders inside each folder. For example, "My Favorite Anims" inside the Animations folder.
  • Creating inventory items can automatically sort them into an appropriate system folder. For example, in the My Inventory sidebar, if you choose the Create > New Notecard menu, the notecard appears in the Notecards system folder.
    • Similar behavior is true when you get items. For example, if another Resident or an object gives you a notecard, it appears in your Notecards folder. If you create a landmark, it appears in your Landmarks folder. If you upload a texture, it appears in your Textures folder. And so on.
    • Snapshots appear in the Photo Album when you save them to your inventory via the Snapshot Preview. While they can be sorted independently, they're basically the same thing as textures.
    • And, receiving a folder puts it in your inventory's top level, regardless of its contents.
  • System folders can appear on top of all other folders, but this can be changed. In the My Inventory sidebar, you can uncheck Sort > System Folders To Top menu, which lets other top-level folders you've created get mixed in by sort order.
  • No inventory item type is restricted to a single system folder. For example, if you create a pair of pants in the Clothing folder, you're free to move it into another system folder, or a folder within a folder in the Clothing folder.

Special cases:

  • The Lost And Found and Trash folders are specifically for stuff you might throw away. You can right-click either folder and choose Empty Lost And Found or Empty Trash, respectively, to permanently delete everything inside the folder.
    • Lost And Found contains items that have been returned to you — for example, if you left a car on a parcel with autoreturn on and it got sent back — so you may want to sort it out before deleting.
  • The Current Outfit and My Outfits folders are specifically about your avatar's appearance.
    • Current Outfit has links to everything you're wearing, and actually shows the same stuff as My Appearance - Wearing
    • My Outfits contains individual folders, each with a icon and usually containing a complete avatar look. My Outfits' folders can contain original items if you intentionally moved them in here, but otherwise, they'll contain links. Outfit folders aren't system folders; they can be moved outside of My Outfits.
    • When you create an outfit, body parts, clothing, and attached objects automatically get inventory links that refer to the original items.
KBtip2.png Tip: Learn more about inventory links.

In earlier Viewer versions, system folders had special icons. Now, they don't. We're considering adding icon art, per EXT-2704 (not publicly viewable).

What are the system folders?

  • Animations
  • Body Parts
  • Calling Cards
  • Clothing
  • Current Outfit
  • Favorites
  • Gestures
  • Landmarks
  • Lost And Found
  • My Outfits
  • Notecards
  • Objects
  • Photo Album
  • Scripts
  • Sounds
  • Textures
  • Trash

Why can't I delete system folders?

As the name implies, the system depends on them to sort and help you organize your inventory. However, you can create additional folders, including sub-folders within system folders.

If you upgraded from Viewer 1.23 to 2.0 and logged back in on 1.23, you'll see the new 2.0 system folders (like Current Outfit and My Outfits) added to your inventory. This change is irreversible, because we're going forward beyond Viewer 2.0 and being able to delete them would cause complications.

Related, see VWR-17195.

What about the Library?

The Library is a special case. While it can be considered a system folder in some ways and it does appear in your inventory, you can't change it, or its contents at all. That's because it contains stock content provided by Linden Lab and isn't local to any one Resident's inventory. Think of it like accessing a read-only network hard drive you can browse, but can't modify.