Cannot create new folder

[Terry Pinnell]

This seems very strange. I'm in the My Computer folder
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users

which contains these folders:

Application Data
Desktop
DRM
Favorites
SendTo
Shared Documents
Start Menu
Templates

and these files:
NTUSER.DAT
NTUSER.DAT.LOG

When I try to add a new folder called 'Documents', I get message
telling me "A file with the name you specified already exists." !

Trying any other name, say 'Documentz' is fine. But why is 'Documents'
rejected, when there plainly is no such folder already?

 

[José Gallardo]

That's true you cannot create a folder with such a name. I think it's so by dessign. It's not an error.

 

[Terry Pinnell]

That's true you cannot create a folder with such a name. I think it's so by dessign. It's not an error.

Thanks. That could give me a problem then, as a program I have called
ActivStudio expects to find files in C:\Documents and Settings\All
Users\Documents. I was having trouble getting it running properly, so
one of the things I was trying was to manually create that folder.
From your answer and subsequent googling, it seems that XP has *two*
reserved names for this folder, 'Shared Documents' and 'Documents'.
But hopefully it will regard them as equivalent, i.e. aliases. If so
then that cannot be the cause of this particular program problem.

 

[José Gallardo]

It's very hard to change that path for another one? Or at least the folder name?

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Terry,

Because "Documents" folder already exists. It just shows as "Shared
Documents" in Explorer.

 

[Terry Pinnell]

Terry,

Because "Documents" folder already exists. It just shows as "Shared
Documents" in Explorer.

Thanks Ramesh, and other respondents.

I must say that seems a pretty daft design. Calling one folder by two
names, with one of them hidden, is bound to lead to confusion.

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

You're welcome Terry.

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

BTW, here;s the contents of Desktop.ini of the Documents folder:

[.ShellClassInfo]
[email protected],-21785

This determines what name is displayed in Explorer.