KWilson
The junctions appear in many difference places in the User folders. One
thing you can do to help, until you get used to the new folder structure, is
go to Folder Options, in Control Panel. Select the View Tab and Place a
check mark in the "Do not show hidden files and folders" option. This will
hide all of these junction folders and give you a cleaner folder tree.
The All Users folder is not a Junction, it is called a Symbolic Link. It
behaves differently because it has a different set of permissions, although
it's appearance is the same as a junction. When you open this folder you
will simply see a mirror copy of the "C:\Program Data" folder.
Follow the steps I posted below and use the command prompt to reveal all of
the junctions on the system.
Once the list is displayed, click the black and white icon at the top left
of the window and click on Select All. Press Enter to copy all of the text
in the window. Open an instance of Notepad and Edit/Paste. Print this list
and keep it handy for reference.
I hope this answers your questions, if not just post back to this thread.
--
Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User
"KWilson" <KWilson@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1B5BFC1D-EE7F-4A8F-B628-35B3CA7C7F4D@microsoft.com...
> Hi Ron. I found your post to be informative. I do want to clarify
> something. When I click on C drive and there is a folder that has a
> shortcut
> icon on it (i.e. Documents and Settings folder) and that I can not access
> as
> Permission is Denied, does that always indicate that that particular
> folder
> is a Junction? Does that shortcut icon used on a folder that I can not
> access always indicate that that folder is a Junction folder? If so, when
> I
> open the Users folder, All Users and Default User has that same icon on
> the
> folder and while I can open the All Users folder, I can not open the
> Default
> User folder as permission is Denied. But, Default, Public, and my own
> folders do not have the icon and I can open those 3 folders. This is very
> confusing for me. I can open my own folder but there are subfolders
> within
> that I can not open (i.e. Templates, Local Settings, Application Data),
> which
> brings me to another question of where do I now store Templates. I am
> finding this learning process to be a bit of a headache. As with other XP
> users, I am not accustomed to being locked out of folders on my system.
> It
> might have been better all around if instead of being denied access a
> pop-up
> might have said, this folder is a marker or Junction folder and contains
> no
> data.
>
> "Ronnie Vernon MVP" wrote:
>
>> rypurdude
>>
>> There is nothing in those old XP folders, so there is no need to access
>> them. The "My" designation for user folders was retired in Vista.
>>
>> The old XP user folders are now Junctions, which means they simply point
>> to
>> the new folder that is used in Vista. They are there for compatibility
>> purposes for old programs that are not compatible with Vista. When an
>> older
>> program tries to access one of these folders, they are automatically
>> redirected to the new user folder in Vista.
>>
>> You can see a list of these folders using a command prompt.
>>
>> Go to Start and type cmd and press Enter.
>>
>> In the command window, type:
>>
>> dir /aL
>>
>> Press Enter.
>>
>> The results will be a list of all the Junctions for the user folders.
>> These
>> will show the name of the old XP user folder and the name of the new
>> folder
>> that replaces it in Brackets.
>>
>> A typical line will look like this:
>>
>> 12/13/2006 04:15 PM <JUNCTION> My Documents [C:\Users\user
>> name\Documents]
>>
>> This line shows the old XP folder, My Documents, is now called Documents
>> and
>> it is located in the C:\Users\user name folder. (Where user name is the
>> account you are logged on with.
>>
>> Another thing you need to do is turn UAC back ON. When you turn this off,
>> you also disable much of the compatibility and Virtualization that is
>> built
>> into Vista.
>>
>> --
>>
>> Ronnie Vernon
>> Microsoft MVP
>> Windows Shell/User
>>
>>
>> "rypurdue" <rypurdue@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:F6A336F8-F6C9-4FB8-9236-A0C188D8428D@microsoft.com...
>> > Steve-
>> >
>> > The KB article was helpful but my problem is slightly different than
>> > what
>> > is
>> > described in the article. If I read it correctly, the article explains
>> > how
>> > to
>> > solve the problem of a "Documents" folder in the start menu not
>> > pointing
>> > to
>> > the correct corresponding "Documents" folder carried over from XP.
>> >
>> > My problem is that it seems like I actually have two sets of Documents
>> > folders -- one from XP and one new set from Vista. I don't need the
>> > Vista
>> > set
>> > to point to the XP set, as I have already begun to save new files in
>> > the
>> > Vista set. However, I just need access to the old XP set. If I go to
>> > Start
>> > and then Documents, I'll see my old folders from XP. When I try to
>> > access
>> > any
>> > My ____ folder, I get the error message described in my first post.
>> >
>> > Thanks.
>>
>>