"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]
Linear Mode
