Vista - Duplicate virtual folders when adjusting the location of the Link Menu in Vista

BT123 · 02-28-2009

This problem is similar to this post:

http://www.vistax64.com/general-discussion/138418-duplicate-folders-created-when-redirecting.html

and although not quite the case:

http://www.vistax64.com/general-discussion/133128-start-menu-short-cut.html#post621438

Thank you for the two posts. I had a similar problem where two virtual music folders in $USERPROFILE% were created, but there was just one in C:\\Users\$USERPROFILE%

I believe that this event occurred because I initially accidentally moved the music virtual folder in $USERPROFILE% to another area, and the 'MUSIC' link in the start menu located it there. However, at the time, since i have only been using Vista for 3 days now, i did not know that virtual folders existed. Thus, thinking that another music folder had been created, and was taking up space in my hard drive, I subsequently deleted the music folder.

Consequently, the location of the music folder did not work, but when i tried to fix that up, two virtual music folders showed up in %USERPROFILE%, and only one appeared in C:\\Users\$USERPROFILE%. I thought this was a registry problem, and decided to take a look at:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Explorer\User Shell Folders

I also looked at the shell folders as well. But, as I am not proficient in registry files, I did not do much except just check that the link for the music folder had not been tampered with, and was showing correctly, $USERPROFILE%\Music.

By the way, if i had deleted the virtual folder, it would delete the two folders in $USERPROFILE% and the single folder in C:\\Users\$USERPROFILE%.

So, after deleting, relocating, and reading many posts, I believe that I fixed up the problem by following Dzomlija advice.

I had also turned off 'Indexing'. So, i turned indexing on, and let the laptop run for the night. Then, i deleted the virtual music folder (there were 3), and rebooted. For some reason, Vista managed to recognise that the virtual folder was missing, and just created it, and my problem was fixed!

Although I am still trying to understand Vista, I have learnt that it is not a great idea to always manually edit things.

I have created this post because I do not want someone to spend 10 hours on fixing up virtual folders like me.

02-28-2009	#1 (permalink)
BT123 Vista Home Premium 32 bit 3 posts	Duplicate virtual folders when adjusting the location of the Link Menu in Vista This problem is similar to this post: http://www.vistax64.com/general-discussion/138418-duplicate-folders-created-when-redirecting.html and although not quite the case: http://www.vistax64.com/general-discussion/133128-start-menu-short-cut.html#post621438 Thank you for the two posts. I had a similar problem where two virtual music folders in $USERPROFILE% were created, but there was just one in C:\\Users\$USERPROFILE% I believe that this event occurred because I initially accidentally moved the music virtual folder in $USERPROFILE% to another area, and the 'MUSIC' link in the start menu located it there. However, at the time, since i have only been using Vista for 3 days now, i did not know that virtual folders existed. Thus, thinking that another music folder had been created, and was taking up space in my hard drive, I subsequently deleted the music folder. Consequently, the location of the music folder did not work, but when i tried to fix that up, two virtual music folders showed up in %USERPROFILE%, and only one appeared in C:\\Users\$USERPROFILE%. I thought this was a registry problem, and decided to take a look at: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Explorer\User Shell Folders I also looked at the shell folders as well. But, as I am not proficient in registry files, I did not do much except just check that the link for the music folder had not been tampered with, and was showing correctly, $USERPROFILE%\Music. By the way, if i had deleted the virtual folder, it would delete the two folders in $USERPROFILE% and the single folder in C:\\Users\$USERPROFILE%. So, after deleting, relocating, and reading many posts, I believe that I fixed up the problem by following Dzomlija advice. I had also turned off 'Indexing'. So, i turned indexing on, and let the laptop run for the night. Then, i deleted the virtual music folder (there were 3), and rebooted. For some reason, Vista managed to recognise that the virtual folder was missing, and just created it, and my problem was fixed! Although I am still trying to understand Vista, I have learnt that it is not a great idea to always manually edit things. I have created this post because I do not want someone to spend 10 hours on fixing up virtual folders like me.
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