Sharing Vista Desktop

Hi I have a mixed network of Vista (2) and XP (3). I was using Network magic
previously but had problems with printing. So I nixed the network magic. the
one thing i did like was the ability to get to each of the computers Desktops
directly. I can do that on the Windows XP computers, but when I share the
desktop on the vista computers it shows up as users. You then have to
navigate to the desktop, which is ok but not directly to the desktop. Is
there away to make it go directly to desktop? Thanks Rodger

Yes, just go to c:\documents and settings\username folder then share the
desktop folder there. The physical location still exists but vista masks
everything you see on your drive so it says users instead. But if you go to
it by typing c:\documents and settings\ it will open, then you can go into
your profile and right click and share the desktop and that will get your
desired result.

Chris



"Rodger" wrote:

> Hi I have a mixed network of Vista (2) and XP (3). I was using Network magic
> previously but had problems with printing. So I nixed the network magic. the
> one thing i did like was the ability to get to each of the computers Desktops
> directly. I can do that on the Windows XP computers, but when I share the
> desktop on the vista computers it shows up as users. You then have to
> navigate to the desktop, which is ok but not directly to the desktop. Is
> there away to make it go directly to desktop? Thanks Rodger

Chris thanks that was exactly what I wanted to do. It took awhile to figure
out why the c:\documents and settings folder was inaccessible. But then I
noticed you wanted me to go further by adding my profile name which took me
where I wanted to go. again thanks Rodger

"Chris Webb" wrote:

> Yes, just go to c:\documents and settings\username folder then share the
> desktop folder there. The physical location still exists but vista masks
> everything you see on your drive so it says users instead. But if you go to
> it by typing c:\documents and settings\ it will open, then you can go into
> your profile and right click and share the desktop and that will get your
> desired result.
>
> Chris
>
>
>
> "Rodger" wrote:
>
> > Hi I have a mixed network of Vista (2) and XP (3). I was using Network magic
> > previously but had problems with printing. So I nixed the network magic. the
> > one thing i did like was the ability to get to each of the computers Desktops
> > directly. I can do that on the Windows XP computers, but when I share the
> > desktop on the vista computers it shows up as users. You then have to
> > navigate to the desktop, which is ok but not directly to the desktop. Is
> > there away to make it go directly to desktop? Thanks Rodger

Rodger wrote:

> Chris thanks that was exactly what I wanted to do. It took awhile to
> figure out why the c:\documents and settings folder was inaccessible. But
> then I noticed you wanted me to go further by adding my profile name which
> took me where I wanted to go. again thanks Rodger
>
> "Chris Webb" wrote:
>
>> Yes, just go to c:\documents and settings\username folder then share the
>> desktop folder there. The physical location still exists but vista masks
>> everything you see on your drive so it says users instead. But if you go
>> to it by typing c:\documents and settings\ it will open, then you can go
>> into your profile and right click and share the desktop and that will get
>> your desired result.
>>
>> Chris
>>
>>
>>
>> "Rodger" wrote:
>>
>> > Hi I have a mixed network of Vista (2) and XP (3). I was using Network
>> > magic previously but had problems with printing. So I nixed the network
>> > magic. the one thing i did like was the ability to get to each of the
>> > computers Desktops directly. I can do that on the Windows XP computers,
>> > but when I share the desktop on the vista computers it shows up as
>> > users. You then have to navigate to the desktop, which is ok but not
>> > directly to the desktop. Is there away to make it go directly to
>> > desktop? Thanks Rodger

There is no real Documents and Settings location in Vista. The real location
is:

%systemdrive%\Users\your-user-account\[various directories like Desktop,
Documents, etc.]

The Documents and Settings is a *virtual* location called a "junction". It
is there for backwards compatibility with older programs which expect that
location to exist.

There is no problem sharing out the Desktop in Vista if you wish but there's
no reason to get to it in that convoluted way, either.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!

well, go test it then, you can't link a share directly to your desktop the
normal way. Thats the only way I could figure it out for him. Unless you can
manually go in and edit the share location after the fact, but when you right
click and share the desktop folder in users it shares the users folder as the
original poster posted.

"Malke" wrote:

> Rodger wrote:
>
> > Chris thanks that was exactly what I wanted to do. It took awhile to
> > figure out why the c:\documents and settings folder was inaccessible. But
> > then I noticed you wanted me to go further by adding my profile name which
> > took me where I wanted to go. again thanks Rodger
> >
> > "Chris Webb" wrote:
> >
> >> Yes, just go to c:\documents and settings\username folder then share the
> >> desktop folder there. The physical location still exists but vista masks
> >> everything you see on your drive so it says users instead. But if you go
> >> to it by typing c:\documents and settings\ it will open, then you can go
> >> into your profile and right click and share the desktop and that will get
> >> your desired result.
> >>
> >> Chris
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> "Rodger" wrote:
> >>
> >> > Hi I have a mixed network of Vista (2) and XP (3). I was using Network
> >> > magic previously but had problems with printing. So I nixed the network
> >> > magic. the one thing i did like was the ability to get to each of the
> >> > computers Desktops directly. I can do that on the Windows XP computers,
> >> > but when I share the desktop on the vista computers it shows up as
> >> > users. You then have to navigate to the desktop, which is ok but not
> >> > directly to the desktop. Is there away to make it go directly to
> >> > desktop? Thanks Rodger
>
> There is no real Documents and Settings location in Vista. The real location
> is:
>
> %systemdrive%\Users\your-user-account\[various directories like Desktop,
> Documents, etc.]
>
> The Documents and Settings is a *virtual* location called a "junction". It
> is there for backwards compatibility with older programs which expect that
> location to exist.
>
> There is no problem sharing out the Desktop in Vista if you wish but there's
> no reason to get to it in that convoluted way, either.
>
> Malke
> --
> MS-MVP
> Elephant Boy Computers
> www.elephantboycomputers.com
> Don't Panic!
>

you can also manually go into your computer management, and shares, and
create a new share directly to c:\users\username\desktop as well to get the
same result, but there must be a bug with the right click share or some odd
excuse for why it shares the user folder instead of desktop if you go in via
explorer and use the right click share method.

"Malke" wrote:

> Rodger wrote:
>
> > Chris thanks that was exactly what I wanted to do. It took awhile to
> > figure out why the c:\documents and settings folder was inaccessible. But
> > then I noticed you wanted me to go further by adding my profile name which
> > took me where I wanted to go. again thanks Rodger
> >
> > "Chris Webb" wrote:
> >
> >> Yes, just go to c:\documents and settings\username folder then share the
> >> desktop folder there. The physical location still exists but vista masks
> >> everything you see on your drive so it says users instead. But if you go
> >> to it by typing c:\documents and settings\ it will open, then you can go
> >> into your profile and right click and share the desktop and that will get
> >> your desired result.
> >>
> >> Chris
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> "Rodger" wrote:
> >>
> >> > Hi I have a mixed network of Vista (2) and XP (3). I was using Network
> >> > magic previously but had problems with printing. So I nixed the network
> >> > magic. the one thing i did like was the ability to get to each of the
> >> > computers Desktops directly. I can do that on the Windows XP computers,
> >> > but when I share the desktop on the vista computers it shows up as
> >> > users. You then have to navigate to the desktop, which is ok but not
> >> > directly to the desktop. Is there away to make it go directly to
> >> > desktop? Thanks Rodger
>
> There is no real Documents and Settings location in Vista. The real location
> is:
>
> %systemdrive%\Users\your-user-account\[various directories like Desktop,
> Documents, etc.]
>
> The Documents and Settings is a *virtual* location called a "junction". It
> is there for backwards compatibility with older programs which expect that
> location to exist.
>
> There is no problem sharing out the Desktop in Vista if you wish but there's
> no reason to get to it in that convoluted way, either.
>
> Malke
> --
> MS-MVP
> Elephant Boy Computers
> www.elephantboycomputers.com
> Don't Panic!
>

Chris Webb wrote:

> well, go test it then, you can't link a share directly to your desktop the
> normal way. Thats the only way I could figure it out for him. Unless you
> can manually go in and edit the share location after the fact, but when
> you right click and share the desktop folder in users it shares the users
> folder as the original poster posted.

Sorry, but it works here for me sharing on a network of machines running XP
Pro, XP Home, Mac OS 10.5.2, and SUSE Linux.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!

Malke wrote:

> Chris Webb wrote:
>
>> well, go test it then, you can't link a share directly to your desktop
>> the normal way. Thats the only way I could figure it out for him. Unless
>> you can manually go in and edit the share location after the fact, but
>> when you right click and share the desktop folder in users it shares the
>> users folder as the original poster posted.
>
> Sorry, but it works here for me sharing on a network of machines running
> XP Pro, XP Home, Mac OS 10.5.2, and SUSE Linux.
>
> Malke

Addendum - Forgot to add Vista Ultimate and even occasionally a server OS to
the mix. I don't ever bother installing any of the other versions of Vista
so perhaps that's a different kettle of fish.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!

Well I'm happy it's working the way Chris set me up earlier. My 5 computers,
two Vista Home Preminum, one XP Professional, and two XP Home Editions with
the my daughter's occasional OS X. I went from the sort of functional Network
Magic, with it's sometimes I'll print and sometimes I won't problems, to a
really functional network. I'm a happy person. thanks everyone.

"Chris Webb" wrote:

> you can also manually go into your computer management, and shares, and
> create a new share directly to c:\users\username\desktop as well to get the
> same result, but there must be a bug with the right click share or some odd
> excuse for why it shares the user folder instead of desktop if you go in via
> explorer and use the right click share method.
>
> "Malke" wrote:
>
> > Rodger wrote:
> >
> > > Chris thanks that was exactly what I wanted to do. It took awhile to
> > > figure out why the c:\documents and settings folder was inaccessible. But
> > > then I noticed you wanted me to go further by adding my profile name which
> > > took me where I wanted to go. again thanks Rodger
> > >
> > > "Chris Webb" wrote:
> > >
> > >> Yes, just go to c:\documents and settings\username folder then share the
> > >> desktop folder there. The physical location still exists but vista masks
> > >> everything you see on your drive so it says users instead. But if you go
> > >> to it by typing c:\documents and settings\ it will open, then you can go
> > >> into your profile and right click and share the desktop and that will get
> > >> your desired result.
> > >>
> > >> Chris
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> "Rodger" wrote:
> > >>
> > >> > Hi I have a mixed network of Vista (2) and XP (3). I was using Network
> > >> > magic previously but had problems with printing. So I nixed the network
> > >> > magic. the one thing i did like was the ability to get to each of the
> > >> > computers Desktops directly. I can do that on the Windows XP computers,
> > >> > but when I share the desktop on the vista computers it shows up as
> > >> > users. You then have to navigate to the desktop, which is ok but not
> > >> > directly to the desktop. Is there away to make it go directly to
> > >> > desktop? Thanks Rodger
> >
> > There is no real Documents and Settings location in Vista. The real location
> > is:
> >
> > %systemdrive%\Users\your-user-account\[various directories like Desktop,
> > Documents, etc.]
> >
> > The Documents and Settings is a *virtual* location called a "junction". It
> > is there for backwards compatibility with older programs which expect that
> > location to exist.
> >
> > There is no problem sharing out the Desktop in Vista if you wish but there's
> > no reason to get to it in that convoluted way, either.
> >
> > Malke
> > --
> > MS-MVP
> > Elephant Boy Computers
> > www.elephantboycomputers.com
> > Don't Panic!
> >