File stored outside of any disk drive on Windows

Question

When saving a file in MS Word under Windows 7, I accidentally saved it to the \\Computer\ location, rather than on a specific partition or removable. And to my astonishment, it ended up saved there.

Windows Explorer shows it like this:

Total Commander shows it like this:

Cygwin does not show it at all (in the cygdrive folder).

What's the use of this? Where's the file actually stored?

Answer 1

You can find where the files is stored by looking at its properties in Explorer (Right-click -> Properties: Location).

In a default Windows configuration it'll be something like:

C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Network Shortcuts

This location was formerly known as "Network Neighborhood" and "My Network Places"; its usage has been changed a little over the years and is now know as "Network Locations". This folder is generally used to hold shortcuts to Network locations (FTP sites, Web sites, etc.) and is blended with other connection types like mapped drives in the GUI.

Since it's (at least partly) populated by the contents of that standard folder, there's no reason you can't put other files types in there (like say, a Word file).

Further reading: How-To Geek has a good article on utilizing some of the intended features of this folder in Windows 8.

Answer 2

Your file stored in the following location:

C:\Users\your_user_name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Network Shortcuts