Vista - Music folder is gone

I'm using Vista Enterprise. The Music folder under c:\user\user
name\documents\ is missing. It was there at one time. The shortcut to the
music folder is available but it does not access the Music folder. If I
right click on Music from Start my options are copy, rename, properties.
Selecting properties brings up a general tab that is completely blank. I
created a folder called Music but when I install iTunes it says it cannot
find the Music folder to add an i Tunes folder. Which is how I discovered
the Music folder was missing. Even with the i Tunes folder in Music that I
created the Music General tab is still completely blank. How do I fix this?
I'd like to continue to use iTunes.

Click Start, type "shell:My Music" and press {ENTER}

If that does not help, see:

Nothing happens when you click on a shell folder link in the Windows Vista Start menu:
http://www.winhelponline.com/article...tart-menu.html

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows Shell/User]
Windows® Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


"razingkane" <razingkane@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:8A964400-6AC1-42AE-BE4F-4C4E02EFC1ED@xxxxxx
I'm using Vista Enterprise. The Music folder under c:\user\user
name\documents\ is missing. It was there at one time. The shortcut to the
music folder is available but it does not access the Music folder. If I
right click on Music from Start my options are copy, rename, properties.
Selecting properties brings up a general tab that is completely blank. I
created a folder called Music but when I install iTunes it says it cannot
find the Music folder to add an i Tunes folder. Which is how I discovered
the Music folder was missing. Even with the i Tunes folder in Music that I
created the Music General tab is still completely blank. How do I fix this?
I'd like to continue to use iTunes.

Neither suggested fix worked. When I did a regedit the Music file was set to
a network drive which my laptop is not currently connected to. I manually
changed the settings. I also downloaded your merge program which did not
work either. I did confirm the the file is setup as you directed using the
reg_expand_sz. Right clicking on Music from Start still shows only the
General tab with no name, 0 bytes, and no dates

Any other suggestions?

"Ramesh, MS-MVP" wrote:

I am having the same issue, Vista Home Premium 32bit.
My troubleshooting led to very odd results.

I had changed the location of the Pictures and Music folders by right-clicking, selecting Location, and changing it to my M:\ drive. I did not modify the folders in the navigation pane; only the folders that display when selecting C:\Users\username\ (at least that's what I think I did).

When I went back to the c:\user\username folder a few hours later, I noticed that both the Music and the Pictures folders were missing.

I modified the registry settings for both Shell and UserShell to the defaults, as per instructions I found on the web. I tried typing Shell:My Music after pressing the Start button. Nothing brought back those folders.

Here is where things get interesting.

1. It took about 5 reboots, but I can now see a Music folder, and it points to c:\user\username\Music, as per my registry change. However, I still do not have a Pictures folder.

2. The Music 'item' or 'icon' in the navigation pane (on the left) points to my original location on the M:\ drive. There is still a Pictures icon there which also points to my M:\ drive. Both work perfectly.

I was trying to figure out why these two icons worked and still pointed to my M: drive, even after I had modified the registry so that Music and Pictures pointed to the defaults. I right-clicked on the Music icon in the navigation pane, and noticed that it was a shortcut, whose target was M:\Music. But when I then looked at the Details tab, I noticed that the folder path was c:\user\username\Links. Ditto for the Pictures icon, also in the navigation pane.

So the navigation icons are some sort of duplicate of the shortcut in the links folder. I'll have to read up on all that business. But in the meantime, I don't want to have to have the navigation pane open all the time; I would like to just have my Music and Pictures folders in c:\user\username, and I would like to have them point to my M:\ drive without disappearing again.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that the Music and Pictures links on the Start button also don't open to anything... probably because there are no such folders in c:\users\username\

Any help would be appreciated. I've already read about 10 webpages on this, but as I said, I've made the modifications they suggest, to no avail (for my Pictures folder, at least).

Here is some more information...
I had created a shortcut to the c:\user\username folder on the desktop.
When I open that shortcut, I have a music folder, a downloads folder, but not a pictures folder. All three had been changed to point to a different folder on another (connected) drive.

Funny thing is that if I go the source folder rather than using the desktop shortcut (i.e., if I browse to c:\users\username\), none of the modified folders are displayed.

Perhaps that offers a clue...?