Vista - Multiple My Documents all linked

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by Blackspear, Feb 16, 2007.

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  1. Blackspear

    Blackspear Global Moderator

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    I'm helping out my Aunt with a fresh install of Windows Vista Business.

    Having moved My Documents to the D Drive I am now presented with 4 copies of My Documents. If you add or remove from one it does so in all others.

    When I check the location of My Documents it correctly points to the D Drive.

    How to I remove the extra My Document (pointers)?

    I also need to be certain that the C Drive is not maintaining a copy of My Documents as I don't want it growing in size. The C Drive is imaged. Doing this with XP was very simple, not so with Vista.

    Cheers :D
     

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  2. eyes-open

    eyes-open Registered Member

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    Did you solve this ?
     
  3. Blackspear

    Blackspear Global Moderator

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    No, it's still being looked into. From what I have been pointed to so far, it seems it is to do with "Junctions". Connected to this issue is the appearance of multiple My Documents on the Start Menu.

    Cheers :D
     
  4. Ice_Czar

    Ice_Czar Registered Member

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  5. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Hi Blackspear

    Does it have something to do with the fact there is no longer a Documents and settings folder, but is tied into the new setup.

    This was one of several reasons I was quickly grabbing my XP pro image and going back.

    Pete
     
  6. SSK

    SSK Registered Member

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    Just installed Vista Business as well... Thanks for the warning Blackspear, I'll lurk around this thread for some time! :D
     
  7. DVD+R

    DVD+R Registered Member

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    Blackspear, this is what you do, its very simple really :D You have dupicated each folder and Windows is confused to which one contains your files.

    1: Click on User Folder (by Default the My Documents Folder is now named....Your Name ( for instance if you entered the name Blackspear on installation setup, this folder is now called Blackspear ( or your real name) follow me so far? :)
    2: Open this folder, inside are these folders:
    Contacts/Desktop/Documents/Downloads/Favourites/Links/Music/Pictures/Saved Games/Searches/Videos
    3:Firstly in your D Drive open the drive window,and rename the My Documents folders in there, to something like Files or My Files.
    4: On the following folders, In the Desktop Username Folder,right click,and click properties, and the Location should say C:\Users\Your Name, if it says D:\ dont worry, we'll fix that in a moment
    5: Click on the Location Tab,and in the Location Address Bar Change C:\to D:\ and click apply. It will say The Location of the folder does not exist and do you want to create, Click Yes.
    Do this with the following folders Documents/Downloads/Music/Pictures/Videos.

    the folders in the file you named My Files, will now be Vista type folders, not XP type. what we need to do now is transfer the folders in My Files to the Users folder. If the folders in My filkes are called My Music/My Videos/My Pictures etc, rename them to Music/Videos/Pictures, Vista does not use the prefix (My) on any folder. After you have renamed them Open the users folder/username, and delete the folders one by one corresponding with the same named folders in My Files (Make sure your files are in the My Files folder) if they are go ahead and delete the folders in Users\Username, thse should be empty, or at least duplicate. Once you delete a folder replace it with the one in My Files, by drag and drop into Users\Username.
    6: Chaeck the location by right click properties, and look at location, it should now say D:\Users\Username, and these folders should be in the folder on the desktop.
    7: Once you have done this with each folder, and they are all in the Desktop folder, and the location says D:\Users\Username, Go ahead and delete the folder in D:\ named My Files.

    You now have only one instance of these files and folders located as D:\User\Username :)

    It took me a while to figure this out too, but it works perfectly. One other thing, when it asks you do you want to change Location, be sure to say yes to each prompt for desktop ini etc and Sample files, or it will duplicate again.
     
  8. Blackspear

    Blackspear Global Moderator

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    Many thanks DVD+R I'll try this out when I'm back at my Aunts and will let you know the results.

    Cheers :D
     
  9. agoretsky

    agoretsky Eset Staff Account

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    Hello,

    I did the same thing that DVD+R did for my Windows Vista computers.

    When setting up a computer for personal use, I create multiple disk volumes (e.g., partitions) to segment the operating system ("C:\WINDOWS\"), applications ("D:\Program Files\"), data files ("E:\My Documents\") and so forth as I find this simplifies management, backups, moving between computers and so forth.

    Right now, I have two computers I am running Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Edition on--one x86 and one x64. Both of these previously has Windows XP Professional Edition with Service Pack 2, so all I did was format the C: (operating system) and D: (application) disk volumes, and then install the operating system and applications to their respective locations.

    When it came time to change the location of the Documents folder from "C:\Users\Aryeh Goretsky\Documents\" to "E:\My Documents\", I just opened the Aryeh Goretsky folder on the Desktop, right-clicked on Documents and selected Properties from the context menu, then went to the Location tab and changed it to "E:\My Documents\". I repeated this for the other folders I needed to change as well, such as Favorites.

    There are still junction points (like symbolic links under UNIX) on the C: drive for the old paths, but data is saved into the directory structure on the E: drive.

    Regards,

    Aryeh Goretsky
     
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