Sharing your desktop files between GNOME and Windows XP

= Assumptions = This article assumes the following setup:

Dual booting Windows XP and some GNU/Linux distribution with GNOME

Disk layout:
 * NTFS Windows system partition
 * FAT32 shared data partition (already mounted under Linux)
 * Linux partition(s)

= Steps to set up a shared desktop =

1) Boot into Windows, move folder ntfs_disk:\\Documents and Settings\your_username\Desktop onto some folder on the FAT32 disk. Windows XP will remember where you put it and look for it in that location in future. Although I have not tested the effect, I strongly advise against changing its location using Linux!

2) Boot into Linux, move all files from your /home/username/Desktop to the Desktop folder on the FAT32 partition.

3) Do an ln -s /location_of_fat32/Desktop /home/username/Desktop

Done!

Essentially the same procedure can be followed for sharing settings for Mozilla/Firefox, Gaim, GIMP, and other programs available for both platforms.