this is great. thanks.

when you say, 'use the location tab in the documents folder' do you mean the
green icon under C:\Users\steven\Documents?




"Keith Miller MVP" <k.miller79@no.spam.verizon.net> wrote in message
news:Oz8aJPKWHHA.896@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> "Rat_uk" <ratty@nowhere.com> wrote in message
> news:5AECB322-B189-4F58-803F-CE504FB324E1@microsoft.com...
>>I have installed vista HE premium. i am having difficulty in understanding
>> how all the folders are linked together.
>>
>> in the left hand explorer pane i see:
>>
>> desktop, then below it i see 'steven' (me!) in a small green icon. if i
>> expand it i see lots of other folders including another green icon called
>> 'documents'.
>>
>> if i expand this, i see three more icons 'my pictures my music my videos'
>> and a yellow folder 'my received files, however the green icons here are
>> shown as shortcuts (they have the small arrow in the corner)
>>
>> even further down the folder tree i have green icons called 'my
>> documents'
>> with 'my music, my videos and my pictures' within.
>>
>> these are also shown as shortcuts and so now i have two lots of documents
>> folders in the left pane....
>>
>> if i then scroll down to the c: drive and navigate to c: \documents and
>> settings\steven (this is how i am used to finding these folders), i find
>> even more pictures/music/videos folders only this time they are
>> traditional
>> yellow folders and not green icons.
>>
>> by now i am totally confused. why can i not just have one simple folder
>> tree????
>>
>
> Turn off "Show hidden files and folders" and things will look a little
> cleaner ;-)
>
> OK. With Vista, you have a UserName folder as you did on XP. It is now
> found under 'C:\Users' rather than 'C:\Documents and Settings' (quite an
> improvement, I think). It has subfolders named AppData (normally hidden),
> Contacts, Documents, Downloads, Favorites, Links, Music, Pictures, Saved
> Games, Searches and Videos.
>
> Open a command prompt & issue a plain 'dir' command. You will see the
> folders I just mentioned. Now use the command 'dir /al'.
>
> You will see a listing of a file-system level shortcuts known as a
> Junctions. These are the icons with shortcut arrows that you are seeing.
> Their names corespond to the the old XP user folder structure. They
> "point' to the coresponding new user folder in Vista. They are created so
> that software that was coded with the XP folder structure in mind would be
> less likely to 'break'
>
> So, if a program goes looking for:
>
> "C:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\My Documents\My Music"
>
> The 'Documents and Settings' junction found under 'C:\' points to:
> 'C:\Users'
>
> The 'My Documents' junction found there points to:
> 'C:\Users\<UserName>'\Documents'
>
> The 'My Music' junction found there points to:
> 'C:\Users\<UserName>'\Music'
>
> So a program that went looking for the Music folder assuming the XP
> location still ends up in the proper folder.
>
> On a fresh install, the UserName folder found on the desktop mirrors the
> content of 'C:\Users\<UserName>'. If you use the 'Move' option found on
> the 'Location' tab of a user folder AND move all the files within that
> folder, the original folder is deleted and will no longer appear under
> 'C:\Users\<UserName>'. But an icon for the folder will remain in the
> 'Desktop\<Username>' folder, because uses the Namespace to display the
> redirected folders -- similar to the way control panel no longer exists as
> a file system folder, but is displayed in a similar fashion.
>
> So the UserName folder on the desktop displays the union of the contents
> of 'C:\Users\<UserName>' and the users 'special' folder collection. If a
> 'special' folder points to a folder that physically resides under
> 'UserName', display of duplicate icons is supressed. But if you don't
> elect to move the contents with the folder, Vista will not delete the
> original folder. So you now have an 'ordinary' folder named Documents
> remaining under UserName, as well as an icon that points to your new
> location. These are the 'duplicates' you are seeing.
>
>> the reason why i want to sort this out is that i want to put my
>> pictures/music/docs onto seperate partitions, therefore i need to change
>> the
>> default positions of the docs folder, or my docs folder or which ever one
>> it
>> is!
>>
>> i understand that i can right click on the folder (and the shortcut on
>> the
>> start menu) and 'move' the folders but i have done this twice now and it
>> all
>> gets horribly messy when it asks "do you want to move all of this folders
>> contents to the new location"?
>>
>> somehow the transition isn't smooth and there ends up being folders all
>> over
>> the place. once i've cocked it up i go back to 'restore default settings'
>> for each folder but errors occur and the folders and shortcuts are all
>> messed up.
>>
>> i have resorted to re-installing vista twice now to correct the problems.
>> i
>> want the following:
>>
>
> For all of these, the transition will be smoother if you elect to Move the
> contents. If you're nervous about a move, back up the files to a third
> location beforehand.
>
>> d:\my documents
>
> Use the Location tab from the 'Documents' folder
>
>> m:\my music
>
> Use the Location tab from the 'Music' folder
>
>> p:\my pictures
>
> Use the Location tab from the 'Pictures' folder
>
>> v:\my videos
>
> Use the Location tab from the 'Videos' folder
>
>> t:\temp files
>
> Right-click on the 'Computer' icon found on the desktop or Start Menu &
> select 'Properties'. On the 'Advanced' tab, click the 'Environment
> Variables...' button & edit the 'TEMP' & 'TMP' variables.
>
>
>> i want to get rid of all the duplicated folders in explorer as well.
>>
>
> As mentioned above, moving the contents allows the original to be deleted
> & you shouldn't see duplicates.
>
>> can anyone shed any light on this????
>
> Hope I just did
>
>
> --
> Good Luck,
>
> Keith
> Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
>