How are the default user folders in the home created for a new user?

Question

When a new user is created and it logs in the first time, those default folders in the home are created. How are they created?

If changing the scripts/configurations that create them so that they are not created anymore, would that cause a problem?

Answer 1

The defaults can be examined using:

$ cat /etc/xdg/user-dirs.defaults
# Default settings for user directories
#
# The values are relative pathnames from the home directory and
# will be translated on a per-path-element basis into the users locale
DESKTOP=Desktop
DOWNLOAD=Downloads
TEMPLATES=Templates
PUBLICSHARE=Public
DOCUMENTS=Documents
MUSIC=Music
PICTURES=Pictures
VIDEOS=Videos
# Another alternative is:
#MUSIC=Documents/Music
#PICTURES=Documents/Pictures
#VIDEOS=Documents/Videos

If you don't want a specific subdirectory created put a # in front of it to comment out the line.

The sub-directories aren't created until the user logs in with a GUI: Create default home directory for existing user in terminal

Answer 2

As @steeldriver commented, the answer is to edit /etc/xdg/user-dirs.defaults so the variables point to your home directory.

Not sure about any problem this would cause.