What happened when I tried to back up IE Favorites???

[HandsOff]

I almost hesitate to relate this story because:

1) It reveals my ignorance of Internet Explorer, and computers in general, and

2) It reveals my naive wish that somebody else can make it comprehensible, and

3) My hope that someday I will discover something that will make the internet safer, and i will become a "Wilder's Legend"!

But here it is:
I wanted to create regular backups of my IE Favorites so that I would always have some trusted sites i could visit, and because I could use it as a log of my internet travels which would help me identify which sites were dropping spyware all over me. Okay, i set up a folder on a separate partion on a physically different hard drive and copied the favorites. after i made some changes in my favorites it was time to back up the favorites again to a separate file in my new folder. Well much to my surprise copying the new file to the folder changed the data in the first file and changing either file had the effect of changing the "real" favorites list in the Internet Explorer.

Is this making sense? Am I just not getting it?

Could this be exploited by malware If they could control favorites from another hidden location? do they already do this? And what about Naomi?


- HandsOff

[HandsOff]

I was really hoping someone could give me a clue as to what was going on. I have run into what might be the same phenomenon when I have tried to move folders like "my documents" and "my music" and "my pictures".

it seems like if you are not careful when you move "my __", some strange things can start happening. documents, music, and pictures are data files, and as such they do not belong on the same partition as the system files. However, i have learned to take precautions to prevent a system drive identity crisis. Again, i don't know why a folder copied to another partion should have any connection to the original...do you?

- HandsOff

[Pilli]

Hi Handsoff, These folders are XP "specials" they are tied into the operating system and you cannot always do what you like with them easily.
May I suggest that you create new folders such as FavesBU1 etc, and copy the actual files to it and not the folder itself.
The same applies to the other "Fixed" folders

HTH Pilli