Trashed Personal subolders (Help please)

[Scott]

In one of my more "brilliant" moves I decided to relocate my
Documents, Pictures, Downlads, Videos and Music subfolders to another
drive (and then to another drive after that).

To make a long story short, this has resulted in a number of problems.

1) The entries on my Start Menu for my Documents, Pictures and Music
folders are worthless.

If I click on any of them nothing happens.
If I riight-click on any of them and select "Properties" all I
get is just the "General" tab with everything blanked out on
it and none of the other tabs appear at all.

2) Every time I open Firefox (and sometimes Thunderbird) I get the
following dialog box.:

http://tinyurl.com/3ymrsn

After clicking continue 2 or three times, the program opens as normal.

3) When I save a document in Word 2007 the "Save as" dialog box pops
up showing the "Windows\systerm32" folder instead of the expected
Documents folder (e.g. C:\Users\<username>\Documents).

4) When I save a file in PowerPoint 2007 it defaults to the root of my
System Drive (C:\) for the location to save the file.

5) When I try saving a text file in Notepad, the previously mentioned
dialog box (see above URL) pops up. If I click continue, I get the
proper location to save.

I've tried altering the
"HKCU\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders"
entries in the registry to repair the problem (based on similar
situations I've read about in previous posts here) followed by an
immediate restart of the computer with no resulting elimination of the
above mentioned problems.

As far as I can tell, the above mentioned registry entries are all at
their defaults (i.e. %USERPROFILE%\Documentrs,%USERPROFILE%\Pictures
and so on). I tried changing them to reflect the altered locations of
the folders (e.g. "S:\Data\Documents") and it made no difference. The
problems still remained, so I changed them back to the defaults.

I've had too many default restore points since I made these changes so
I have no idea what restore point to go back to do a System Restore
(not to mention I'd lose other changes made since said restore point).

Outside of wiping my system partition and starting with a fresh
install of Windows, I have no clue as to how to fix this mess.

Do you?

Thanks.

 

[Keith Miller MVP]

In one of my more "brilliant" moves I decided to relocate my
Documents, Pictures, Downlads, Videos and Music subfolders to another
drive (and then to another drive after that).

I've tried altering the
"HKCU\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders"
entries in the registry to repair the problem (based on similar
situations I've read about in previous posts here) followed by an
immediate restart of the computer with no resulting elimination of the
above mentioned problems.

As far as I can tell, the above mentioned registry entries are all at
their defaults (i.e. %USERPROFILE%\Documentrs,%USERPROFILE%\Pictures
and so on). I tried changing them to reflect the altered locations of
the folders (e.g. "S:\Data\Documents") and it made no difference. The
problems still remained, so I changed them back to the defaults.

First, open a command prompt window & verify the value of %USERPROFILE% by
typing:

set userprofile<Enter>

You should see something similar to:

USERPROFILE=C:\Users\Keith

If not, post back & we'll worry about that. But assuming that points to
your user folder, and the 'User Shell Folder' values are set back to their
defaults as you said, open the 'Run...' dialog (either from Start Menu if
enabled or <WinKey+R>) and type:

shellersonal<Enter>

If that works, it should open an Explorer window to your Documents folder.
If it does, repeat the process for the other folders:

shell:downloads
shell:my music
shell:my pictures
shell:my video

If this doesn't work, post back & we'll try something else

 

[Ian]

My solution is much simpler.
Get a large sledge hammer and whack your case and contents 15 times.
Telephone your insurance company and tell them that you did this in a fit of
anger (do NOT lie) If they quibble about replacing it, simply state that
when you took out the policy, you were sane and had not experienced this
sort of anger prior to the launch of Vista. With the cheque they send, get
a replacement, or, simply spend the cash on a holiday.

Hope this helps

In one of my more "brilliant" moves I decided to relocate my
Documents, Pictures, Downlads, Videos and Music subfolders to another
drive (and then to another drive after that).

I've tried altering the
"HKCU\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders"
entries in the registry to repair the problem (based on similar
situations I've read about in previous posts here) followed by an
immediate restart of the computer with no resulting elimination of the
above mentioned problems.

As far as I can tell, the above mentioned registry entries are all at
their defaults (i.e. %USERPROFILE%\Documentrs,%USERPROFILE%\Pictures
and so on). I tried changing them to reflect the altered locations of
the folders (e.g. "S:\Data\Documents") and it made no difference. The
problems still remained, so I changed them back to the defaults.

First, open a command prompt window & verify the value of %USERPROFILE% by
typing:

set userprofile<Enter>

You should see something similar to:

USERPROFILE=C:\Users\Keith

If not, post back & we'll worry about that. But assuming that points to
your user folder, and the 'User Shell Folder' values are set back to their
defaults as you said, open the 'Run...' dialog (either from Start Menu if
enabled or <WinKey+R>) and type:

shellersonal<Enter>

If that works, it should open an Explorer window to your Documents folder.
If it does, repeat the process for the other folders:

shell:downloads
shell:my music
shell:my pictures
shell:my video

If this doesn't work, post back & we'll try something else


--
Good Luck,

Keith
Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]

 

[Scott]

[..........]
First, open a command prompt window & verify the value of %USERPROFILE% by
typing:

set userprofile<Enter>

You should see something similar to:

USERPROFILE=C:\Users\Keith

Yup that checked out.

If not, post back & we'll worry about that. But assuming that points to
your user folder, and the 'User Shell Folder' values are set back to their
defaults as you said, open the 'Run...' dialog (either from Start Menu if
enabled or <WinKey+R>) and type:

shellersonal<Enter>

"Windows cannot find 'shellersonal'. Make sure you typed the name
correctly, and then try again."

I guess I didn't get that registry thing right eh? ;-)

 

[Scott]

[.........]

If this doesn't work, post back & we'll try something else

My solution is much simpler.
Get a large sledge hammer and whack your case and contents 15 times.
Telephone your insurance company and tell them that you did this in a fit of
anger (do NOT lie) If they quibble about replacing it, simply state that
when you took out the policy, you were sane and had not experienced this
sort of anger prior to the launch of Vista. With the cheque they send, get
a replacement, or, simply spend the cash on a holiday.

Hope this helps

I thought you were going to use the money to get a Mac.

 

[Scott]

I hate it when I manage to get a spelling error in the subject
line....

 

[Keith Miller MVP]

[..........]
First, open a command prompt window & verify the value of %USERPROFILE% by
typing:

set userprofile<Enter>

You should see something similar to:

USERPROFILE=C:\Users\Keith

Yup that checked out.

If not, post back & we'll worry about that. But assuming that points to
your user folder, and the 'User Shell Folder' values are set back to their
defaults as you said, open the 'Run...' dialog (either from Start Menu if
enabled or <WinKey+R>) and type:

shellersonal<Enter>

"Windows cannot find 'shellersonal'. Make sure you typed the name
correctly, and then try again."

I guess I didn't get that registry thing right eh? ;-)

Well, maybe you did. I created a test profile (Rory) & deleted the Docs,
Pics, and Music folders. Logged off & logged on. Properties of 'Documents'
on Start Menu was blank, just as you described. Tried 'shellersonal' --
got "Windows cannot find...". BUT, the 'Documents' folder was recreated
under:

"Desktop\Computer\G:\Users\Rory"

even though it didn't show under:

"Desktop\Rory"

It took one more log off & log on to reestablish the association. You can
do every missing folder in the same session.

shellersonal
shell:downloads
shell:my music
shell:my pictures
shell:my video

accept the error messages, then log off & back on & see if they're back.

 

[Scott]

I created a test profile (Rory) & deleted the Docs,
Pics, and Music folders. Logged off & logged on. Properties of 'Documents'
on Start Menu was blank, just as you described. Tried 'shellersonal' --
got "Windows cannot find...". BUT, the 'Documents' folder was recreated
under:

"Desktop\Computer\G:\Users\Rory"

even though it didn't show under:

"Desktop\Rory"

It took one more log off & log on to reestablish the association. You can
do every missing folder in the same session.

shellersonal
shell:downloads
shell:my music
shell:my pictures
shell:my video

accept the error messages, then log off & back on & see if they're back.

I'm afraid it didn't work. The problem remains.

 

[Keith Miller MVP]

Does 'shell:desktop' open an explorer window to the desktop?

Do both 'shellrofile' and 'shell:usersfilesfolder' open the <username>
folder on your desktop?

 

[Scott]

Does 'shell:desktop' open an explorer window to the desktop?

Do both 'shellrofile' and 'shell:usersfilesfolder' open the <username>
folder on your desktop?

Yes. I guess I didn't mess quite everything up.

On a semi-related note. I'm now getting errors when I try to run
System Restore. Instead of the program launching I get "The filename,
directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect (0x80007007B).
System Restore will now close."

I think I'll just trash this puppy and start with a fresh install of
Windows.

 

[Keith Miller MVP]

Are you dual-booting with XP? Known issue with XP wiping out Vista restore
points.

 

[Scott]

Are you dual-booting with XP? Known issue with XP wiping out Vista restore
points.

Nope. Just Vista.

 

[Scott]

I caved. I got impatient and installed Ace Utilities and let er rip on
the registry.

I got my Personal subfolders back.

But let's not talk about what it did to my beloved 7-Zip (which I
fixed by reinstalling). :0)
--
Scott http://angrykeyboarder.com

A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
NOTICE: In-Newsgroup (and therefore off-topic) comments on my sig will
be cheerfully ignored, so don't waste our time.