Vista - Personal User Folder - Restore Missing Folder

OK, so your help on my previous issue was outstanding... and I'm back.

I installed a few new programs that (...I found out too late) automatically place items in the user folders. So, since I had moved the user folders to a new location previously, I now have duplicate "documents", "pictures", "games" and "music" folders and I cannot delete copy either of them.

I thought I had seen this issue somewhere else in this forum - but I can't find it now. Any advice on how to get rid of the duplicate user folders?

Thanks in advance ~

Hello Jeff,

These duplicate user folders are only from the new programs that you had installed and are not really the real user folders.

You have two options on how to get rid of them depending on the new programs:

1. Change the settings in the new programs to have their save to folders changed to the new location of your user folders.

2. If the programs do not allow you to change the save to folder location, then you can only change the affected user folders back to their default location.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

I specifically registered on this forum to say thank you Shawn.

I've been struggling with this since I inadvertently moved my desktop location to an external hard disk, and with no Location tab no matter what I did, I just couldn't get my desktop location back to its default. The registry key entries did the trick.

I can't say I'm a great fan of Vista compared to XP. It seems to be "waiting" to trip you up in so many wierd and wonderful ways by comparison to XP.

However thanks again for taking the time and trouble to write up this tutorial. Fantastic!

Norman.

You're welcome Norman, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Shawn

THanks Brink, I'll have to hunt through the new programs and see if I can manually change the save locations. Hope so since having my user files on another hard drive has already saved my bacon more than once.

Once again, thank you for the expert advice!

You're welcome Jeff. I hope that you are able to so that it will be easier to fix.

Shawn

Restore Contacts Folder after moving to a new drive.

I moved my Contacts folder to another drive without first creating a folder on the new drive - moved to e: . I then moved it into a folder but can't find a way to make it green and also the contacts no longer show up in the user profile. I want the contacts on the user profile just mapped to the new drive location. Can you give me instructions to fix this

Hello Bird, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Can you change the Contacts folder you moved back to the default location of C:\Users\(user name)\Contacts by using Method One in this tutorial? If you can, you may need to restart the computer a couple of times afterwards to see it return back to the Start menu.

Hi there, I just registered but I seem to have this same sort of problem with some of my personal folders

The other day, I decided to re-format my other hard-drive mainly because I wasnt using it at all and it had a bunch of old files that I wouldnt need again. So i reformatted it and then I moved my VIDEOS, MUSIC and PICTURES from C: to F: to free up space on my C: drive using the default location setting. But for some reason, When I changed the default location on pics, music and videos, the Icons in my personal folder changed to the yellow folders and I also somehow created a link to my F: drive in my personal folder. I have downloaded the video and picture registries and I have logged off and on and it has worked to an extent. The link to my F: drive is gone from my personal folder but my pictures and videos icons havent shown up yet.

I also didnt realize that when I changed the default location of my pictures and videos to the other hard-drive, Windows DVD maker would suddenly stop working properly. I now have to copy and paste the files I want to burn but I cant even save projects or browse for pictures to use as foreground and background.

So i guess my main question is how do I restore my default pictures and videos Icons in my personal folder but have their default location be my F: Drive?

Ok, so now I have a new problem. I restored (more or less) my videos and pictures files and moved all the files back so that the default location is c:. But now my "videos" folder is displaying as a "desktop" folder so I have 2 desktops in my personal folder. Heres a picture




I aplogize about the size of the picture but its the only way I know how to explain this. Does anyone have any idea how I go about in fixing this??

Hello Kyle, and welcome to Vista Forums.

To be safe temporarily copy anything you have in those folders somewhere other than in a user folder as a backup.

Now, delete the folders that are not correct, and restore the default locations for them using either option in Method Two. You may need to restart a couple of times afterwards to have everything restore back to normal.

Hope this helps,
Shawn