Tags are the key to NOT having to have images in one or more folder.

If the DAM software you are using (digital asset manager, of which there are many) has an option to allow tags embedded in the pictures, then the image will come up out of any one folder if you do a search by the Tag method. This helps to eliminate the confusion of "Gee, this image works in both xxx and xyz folder. Should I have it in both?"

No... use tags and search for the appropriate tag.

The free Faststone Image Viewer allows tags. Windows Live Photo Gallery allows tags. In both of those, you control your folder structure in Windows in the Windows Libraries>Photos>My Photos. Both Windows Live PG and Faststone are "shell" programs that overview your folder structure as it appears in My Pictures. They do allow you to create and manage folders in the programs, and when you revert to the Windows Libraries system, the folder structure is just as you intended it to be.

So I manage all my folders in Windows Libraries, and use the Faststone Image viewer as a means to view files or search by tags for specific images properly tagged.

Don't try to make a science out of it.

I purposely avoid all of Adobe's Catalog style image management function.... elements, bridge, and LR. It's just to easy to run afoul of a broken or corrupt catalog, when this can all be done in Windows Library, in concert with a good shell viewer that offers tags.

Faststone Image Viewer also offers many batch procedures, including batch exposure changes, batch rename, batch resize, to name a few. It is free and there is also an 85 page tutorial you can download that is very usable.

An added bonus with Faststone Image Viewer is that you can put it on a thumb drive (portable usage) and use it to view images on ANY PC without any effect on the PC you plug it into.

Faststone... Free. Lightroom....$149 and will it be caught up in the new Adobe "lease" Program for Software?