Which folders are shortcuts?

[J Lunis]

In WinXP, Explorer I have 4-5 instances of 'My Documents' and
subfolders. ( I posted about this several days ago and someone said I
could safely delete all instances that were shortcuts.)
How do I tell which folders are shortcuts? On the desktop the icons
look different. I can tell no difference in Explorer.

 

[Mike Hall \(MS-MVP\)]

J

My advice to you is to stay out of Explorer.. that way you won't see what
appears to be duplicated, but actually serves a purpose.. these things do no
harm and take up virtually no space..

 

[Silvabod]

RIGHT-click on the icon, select "properties" - read the tab information - if
it's a short-cut, it says so. You can safely delete any short-cut icon (via
the same "Properties" menu - you will lose no data, just the unwanted
short-cut.
HTH - Silvabod

 

[Mike Hall \(MS-MVP\)]

Silva

For general shortcuts, I would agree with what you say, but the OP is
looking at 'shortcuts' where the system may not allow deletion..

 

[J Lunis]

J

My advice to you is to stay out of Explorer.. that way you won't see what
appears to be duplicated, but actually serves a purpose.. these things do no
harm and take up virtually no space..

Ah, but I function almost exclusively in Explorer (with the exception of
START|ALL PROGRAMS).

 

[J Lunis]

Silva

For general shortcuts, I would agree with what you say, but the OP is
looking at 'shortcuts' where the system may not allow deletion..

Well, since you sign in as MS-MVP, I guess you know something. Are you
saying the My Documents and subfolders shortcuts are 'special' and can't
safely be deleted?
Do I really need 5 of these things?

 

[David Candy]

None of them are probably shortcuts. The icon will have an arrow if they are a shortcut. Why don't you use your computer instead of breaking it and wasting space here.

 

[Mike Hall \(MS-MVP\)]

J

XP sets up these folders for a reason.. one of them is for people who may
decide to add user accounts to the system.. ease of access is another reason
for what appears to be multiple entries..

So why should you care about their presence?.. they do absolutely no harm..
they are there for your convenience should you choose to alter the way that
your computer is set up.. they take up virtually zero space on the hard
drive..

I can't understand why some decide to go delving into the sub system looking
for problems to create.. the stupid part is that many download and run the
most appallingly bad stuff that creates more problems than ever an empty XP
folder can..

Some of the folders are 'system protected' and for good reason.. when
computer illiterates download stuff and don't know where its gone, they can
be pointed to these default save folders.. Win 9x never had them, and the
amount of people not able to find files after hours downloading through dial
up connections were huge.. I heard chat room experts tell these people to
download to the desktop.. hahahahaha, just what an overloaded desktop
needed.. and they wondered why Win 9x used to crash out..

Programs like Clean Sweep used to find duplicates.. again, some files needed
to be in multiple folders, but whatever.. users would delete multiple
entries of ctldll32, vbrunXXX (or similar) and then find that virtually no
program would run anymore..

If XP has installed multiple elements of something, you can bet your life
that at some point in time, there will be, or already is, a need for it..

Use your computer productively.. whether that is to defeat the enemy in
Delta Force 2, create a newsletter in MS Publisher, edit holiday photos or
videos, or playing online Bingo, make the computer work for you and forget
about the inner workings until you definitely have a problem.. and come that
time, return here to get fixes rather than delve into what appears to a
layman to be an illogical system

BTW.. the biggest single threat to the world is man without wisdom wanting
to change it.. the biggest single threat to a computer is a user/operator
without wisdom wanting to change it..

 

[Guest]

Mike maybe you should take the time to explain what you are talking about.
I have never seen more than one instance of "My Documents" in Explorer.
Where exactly does Windows XP make more than one instance of it?
do you mean Docs & Settings - My Documents for each user that may log on?
If so then yes leave the other users My Docs alone but clean up your own.
If there is more than one icon on the desktop and that is what OP is
referring to then yes he can safely delete them.. why not?
I'd be interested to know where exactly it is showing the second My
Documents in Explorer....

 

[Guest]

Oh and please explain the following statement
"For general shortcuts, I would agree with what you say, but the OP is
looking at 'shortcuts' where the system may not allow deletion"

Maybe im just ignorant but wtf is "shortcuts"

 

[David Candy]

He is speaking idiot talk to the person so they might understand.

 

[Guest]

Oh my mistake

He is speaking idiot talk to the person so they might understand.

 

[Mike Hall \(MS-MVP\)]

Devious

Have you never seen the selection in a drop down menu to 'create shortcut',
or the name of a user generated icon called 'shortcut to xxxxxx'?..

 

[Mike Hall \(MS-MVP\)]

OK J..

Enough messing about..

Right click on the icon that you think maybe a shortcut.. select
properties.. so what size is the shortcut?.. if it is around 2k or some
trivial amount, then it is a shortcut.. under the 'General' tab, it even
tells you the file type, so you should be left in no doubt.. When you get to
the My Documents that is the real one, it will be way larger than 2k.. this
is the one that you keep..

I am intrigued by you having more than one.. I know of no function within XP
that will do this without user intervention of some kind.. I am also
puzzled, as is our friend Devious, as to why you have so many instances of
My Documents complete with the full compliment of sub folders..

I am beginning to think that you maybe have more than one instance of XP
within the same partition.. have you tried to repair or re-install XP at any
point?.. do you have other user accounts?.. do other people have access to
the computer?.. if so, have you asked them about any of this?

 

[DanS]

Ah, but I function almost exclusively in Explorer (with the exception
of START|ALL PROGRAMS).

Good. (Although the Start Menu does suck, unless you are meticulous about
keeping it neat and tidy, but programs are still minum 3 click away.) As a
too experienced PC user/builder/repairer, I always try people to get to use
Windows Explorer. Newer users seem to get a better idea of the
drive/computer hierarchy and hopefully understand it better. Then they
won't have to call me, for a 30 minute un-paid tech support call from a
friend or relative, and trying to walk them thru using Explorer when
they've never used it before. And actually the calls have dwindled to
almost nothing.