Accessing "Documents and Settings"

[Bogey@coastal SC]

OK, I just did a clean install of Vista Ultimate. I don't yet understand
working around the security features. But when I click on Documents and
Settings I get: "Access is Denied" on this folder (as well as several
others).
How do I access these folders?

 

[Malke]

OK, I just did a clean install of Vista Ultimate. I don't yet
understand working around the security features. But when I click on
Documents and Settings I get: "Access is Denied" on this folder (as well
as several others).
How do I access these folders?

You don't access those folders because they aren't real folders. They
are junctions, sort of like shortcuts, there for backwards
compatibility. The file hierarchy is different in Vista. There is no
"Documents and Settings" any more; you have all your user files under
C:\Users\Your-Username\.


Malke

 

[Andrew McLaren]

OK, I just did a clean install of Vista Ultimate. I don't yet understand
working around the security features. But when I click on Documents and
Settings I get: "Access is Denied" on this folder (as well as several
others).
How do I access these folders?

Hi Bogey,

In Vista "Documents and Settings" isn't really a folder. It's a "junction
point" - like a soft link, in Unix.

The *real* directory where user data is kept in Vista, is called "C:\Users".
If you use "Users" in place of "Documents and Settings" you should be sweet.
Eg, C:\Users\Bogey\Documents, etc.

The "Documents and Settings" junction point exists to preserve compatibility
for applications which have this path name hard-coded. Well-behaved
applications should not have a hard-coded "Documents and Settings" string;
they should call SHGetSpecialFolder() instead, to find the User directory on
a system. But just a sad fact of life, many apps out there do look for a
"Documents and Settings" directory ....

"Users" is preferable to "Documents and Settings" because many apps have
problems with path names containing spaces. It also soaks up more chars
from the limited 260 char MAX_PATH length for directory names. Finally,
"Users" is more intuitive for folks coming from Unix and other, more normal
operating system environments

The "Documents and Settings" junction point is usually hidden and not
visible in Explorer. If you are seeing it in an obtrusive way, you may have
turned ON the folder option to see hidden files?

Hope this helps,

 

[Bogey@coastal SC]

Hi Bogey,

In Vista "Documents and Settings" isn't really a folder. It's a "junction
point" - like a soft link, in Unix.

The *real* directory where user data is kept in Vista, is called
"C:\Users". If you use "Users" in place of "Documents and Settings" you
should be sweet. Eg, C:\Users\Bogey\Documents, etc.

The "Documents and Settings" junction point exists to preserve
compatibility for applications which have this path name hard-coded.
Well-behaved applications should not have a hard-coded "Documents and
Settings" string; they should call SHGetSpecialFolder() instead, to find
the User directory on a system. But just a sad fact of life, many apps out
there do look for a "Documents and Settings" directory ....

"Users" is preferable to "Documents and Settings" because many apps have
problems with path names containing spaces. It also soaks up more chars
from the limited 260 char MAX_PATH length for directory names. Finally,
"Users" is more intuitive for folks coming from Unix and other, more
normal operating system environments

The "Documents and Settings" junction point is usually hidden and not
visible in Explorer. If you are seeing it in an obtrusive way, you may
have turned ON the folder option to see hidden files?

Hope this helps,

I'm starting to understand. I was trying to do some cut and paste folders
into D&C to import, such as my "Favorites" from another drive, etc. Thanks
for the explanation. (I need to find the book: Vista for Dummies)...

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Bogey

Take a look at the following website. There is a good explanation about
Junctions there as well as a complete list of all default folders with their
location in XP and the new location for those folders in Vista.

Svrops.com - Windows Vista Junction Points:

http://www.svrops.com/svrops/articles/jpoints.htm

 

[Bogey@coastal SC]

Thanks for pointing me to that website.

Bogey

Take a look at the following website. There is a good explanation about
Junctions there as well as a complete list of all default folders with
their location in XP and the new location for those folders in Vista.

Svrops.com - Windows Vista Junction Points:

http://www.svrops.com/svrops/articles/jpoints.htm


--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Bogey

Your welcome, glad this helped.