Tom Anderson said:
I am using Vista on a new laptop and I am the only user and logged in as
administrator. I want to open the folder Documents and Settings but when I
try I get a dialogue box "Access Denied".
How can I gain access?
This folder is only seen if you set it to show hidden folders. It's hidden
for a reason. And in this case that's because that folder is not used for
data or file storage in Vista. It's one of several folders that are carried
over to Vista from XP for the benefit of legacy apps which expect to see it,
but what those folders are is a junction. These folders are hidden, have
the shortcut arrow and give access denied. It contains only a pointer to
the actual folders in Vista where the data is kept. Hence there is no need
to open it, and don't change the permissions on these junctions either. It
can cause problems for legacy apps.
To see where a junction points open an elevated command prompt. Click the
Start Orb, type in cmd, right click on it at the top left, and choose Run as
Administrator. Navigate to the folder that contains one of these access
denied junctions, and give the command:
dir /al
Junctions are identified by <Junction> and the folder it points to is in
brackets at the end of the line. Documents and Settings points to C:\Users.
From a post by Jimmy Brush here is a list of legacy folders from XP that are
junctions in Vista and the Vista folders to which they point.
Windows XP Location Windows Vista Location
\Documents and Settings \Users
\Documents and Settings\$USER$\My Documents \Users\$USER$\Documents
\Documents and Settings\$USER$\My Documents\My Music \Users\$USER$\Music
\Documents and Settings\$USER$\My Documents\My Pictures
\Users\$USER$\Pictures
\Documents and Settings\$USER$\My Documents\My Videos
\Users\$USER$\Videos
\Documents and Settings\$USER$\Application Data
\Users\$USER$\AppData\Roaming
\Documents and Settings\$USER$\Cookies
\Users\$USER$\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies
\Documents and Settings\$USER$\Local Settings
\Users\$USER$\AppData\Local
\Documents and Settings\$USER$\NetHood
\Users\$USER$\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Network Shortcuts
\Documents and Settings\$USER$\PrintHood
\Users\$USER$\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Printer Shortcuts
\Documents and Settings\$USER$\Recent
\Users\$USER$\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent
\Documents and Settings\$USER$\SendTo
\Users\$USER$\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo
\Documents and Settings\$USER$\Start Menu
\Users\$USER$\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
\Documents and Settings\$USER$\Templates
\Users\$USER$\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Templates
\Documents and Settings\$USER$\Local Settings\Application Data
\Users\$USER$\AppData\Local
\Documents and Settings\$USER$\Local Settings\History
\Users\$USER$\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\History
\Documents and Settings\$USER$\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
\Users\$USER$\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files
\Documents and Settings\All Users \ProgramData
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data \ProgramData
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop \Users\Public\Desktop
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents \Users\Public\Documents
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Favorites \Users\Public\Favorites
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu
\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
\Documents and Settings\All Users\Templates
\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Templates
\Documents and Settings\Default User \Users\Default "
