Vista - Two share folders named Public?

I seem to have two different icons for a folder named "Public" on my Vista
Ultimate laptop:

One has a regular folder icon, and is in the tree under the Administrator
User Account name.

The other is an icon that looks like a folder with a bus bar under it, and
this one is located along with a similar-looking folder named "User" under
the Computer name tree.

Why are there two separate Public folders, and what does the one with the
bus-bar icon represent? When I click on this one, the computer keeps trying
to open it and then stops responding.

In my attempts to access shared files on this laptop from my Win98SE
desktop, when I was able to add a shortcut to the laptop PC in Network
Neighborhood, double clikcing on it showed folders titled Public and Users,
whcih leads me to believe it is pointing to the bus-bar icon folders.

However, when I double click this Public folder, nothing happens and the
computer locks up.
--
Shri