"JoanB" <JoanB@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:7D6C5CF0-7727-4D6B-9A58-DC6CD65562E6@xxxxxx
Quote:
> This may be a stupid question, but it's driving me crazy. If you go into
> Folder Options and uncheck the box which says "Hide protected operating
> system files", and then go into Windows Explorer and go to the following
> path:
>
> Users\'username'\AppData\Local\
>
> you will see the 'Application Data' folder along with all the other
> folders
> (e.g. Adobe, Google, Microsoft, etc.). If you click on the 'Application
> Data' folder, it opens up and displays the exact same set of folders which
> you saw in the 'Local' folder. If you then open up that next level
> 'Application Data' folder, you see the same list again, and on and on for
> as
> long as I looked.
>
> Are there really nested levels of the same folders, or is this just same
> strange apparition that I'm seeing?
>
> I don't see the same behavior with Windows XP. Is this something
> different
> in Vista, or do I have a corrupted Vista application on my new computer?
>
> Thanks,
> JoanB
It is something different in Vista. It looks like a shortcut, but in reality
it's what's known in the trade as a 'junction'
You can see this if you open up a command prompt and type the following
dir /al %userprofile%\AppData\Local
If you examine the output closely, then you'll see that it's a junction. In
square brackets the target of the junction is shown, which in this case is
its parent folder.
They're essentially there for compatibilty purposes, so that if an
application tries to write to a place that it knew and loved under XP, it
will be redirected to a suitable place in Vista. I forget the exact mapping
for that particular one, but there is a good reason for each.
--
Jon