Can't relocate My Documents

[Guest]

Windows XP SP2 (with current updates) logging into Windows 2003 enviroment.
User profiles located on the server. User's My Documents previously relocated
to a server location.

I need to change the naming convention of where My Documents is pointed to.
I don't need to move the documents. It currently is pointed to "\\noah\john
doe". I need it to say "\\name\public\users\john doe".

When I right click on My Documents, choose Properties to change the
location, there are no options available (Restore, move, find target) and I
can't change the location in the Target field.

The user is an Administrator on this computer. TweakUI doesn't list My
Documents as one of the Special Folders that can be moved. I tried changing
the location in the registry (HKey_Current-User \ Software \ Microsoft \
Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Shellfolders. But it doesn't stay. I
have not deleted any My Documents folder, since this isn't a new location,
just a new name. I don't see any group policy in place locally (by running
gpedit.msc) and I don't believe there are any policies in place on the
server. Policy inheritance is turned off for the group this user is in. I
can change the location for other users, but there are some that I can't.

Thank you for any suggestions or directions for a more appropriate place to
post this question.

 

[Allan]

Windows XP SP2 (with current updates) logging into Windows 2003
enviroment.
User profiles located on the server. User's My Documents previously
relocated
to a server location.

I need to change the naming convention of where My Documents is pointed
to.
I don't need to move the documents. It currently is pointed to
"\\noah\john
doe". I need it to say "\\name\public\users\john doe".

When I right click on My Documents, choose Properties to change the
location, there are no options available (Restore, move, find target) and
I
can't change the location in the Target field.

The user is an Administrator on this computer. TweakUI doesn't list My
Documents as one of the Special Folders that can be moved. I tried
changing
the location in the registry (HKey_Current-User \ Software \ Microsoft \
Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Shellfolders. But it doesn't stay.
I
have not deleted any My Documents folder, since this isn't a new location,
just a new name. I don't see any group policy in place locally (by
running
gpedit.msc) and I don't believe there are any policies in place on the
server. Policy inheritance is turned off for the group this user is in.
I
can change the location for other users, but there are some that I can't.

Thank you for any suggestions or directions for a more appropriate place
to
post this question.

It seems that you are renaming rather than moving/relocating. Did you try
using DOS-type commands inside a command window? The name of the folder
should be \\noah\john doe's documents.

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

OK. First catch: This is not XP Starter, is it? Because if it is, XP
Starter does not allow relocation of My Docs (tho it does allow
relocation of My Music and My Pics from within My Docs).

There's the namespace object that appears at the top of the PC's
subtree (at the same level as "My Computer" itself).

Then there's the file system location this object points to, which in
your case is successfully relocated to "\\noah\john doe".

The names of the two are managed separately, and the former may not be
manageable in the way you are after.

The "forward" linkage from namespace object to file system location
is done via registry, both in per-user "shell folders" and "user shell
folders" and also by references within HKLM.

The "backward" linkage from file system location to the namespace
object is done via settings within the (hidden) Desktop.ini there.

I suspect it is the latter that controls sonme of the oddball naming
effects one sees, e.g. in some contexts you will see "Fred's
Documents" (where the user account is called Fred) and others you will
see "My Documents", and when you look at the location at the raw file
system level, you may see something else again.

This stuff gets even worse in Vista, BTW.

If you rt-click the "My Documents" object on the desktop - or in the
top level of the Desktop - and go Properties, what directory path do
you see there? Is it the "\\Noah\John Doe" you expect?

Does this change if you are not connected to the server?

If you set Windows Explorer to show the full path in the title bar,
and you navigate into "My Documents", what path do you see in the
title bar? Now create a subdir and navigate into it; what do you see
now" Typically you may have seen first "My Documents" and then when
entering the subdir, "\\Noah\John Doe\SubdirName".

At this point I'd ask how the desktop and server systems are related.
Are you using a workgroup or a domain? Are you using roaming
profiles, or did you just re-path "My Documents"? Does your mileage
vary if the server is not available, or after the server was not
available (i.e. does it latch into a broken state)?

I dunno much about servers and domains; I'm strictly a workstation
dude. But I have been routinely re-pathing these shell folders
(albeit to local subtrees on the same PC) since Win95.

Are you sure there isn't some sort of server-centric lock-down in
effect, as one may expect in a domain environment?

OK. I think the first thing to be clear on, is whether you are
battling with the namespace object name, or the actual path. From
your post, it sounds as if it's the latter, i.e. you do have
redirection to "\\Noah\John Doe" in effect, but it doesn't look that
way in certain contexts (perhaps where Desktop.ini and/or namespace
logic affects what you see).

Do any other PCs also point to this location as "My Docs" or other
"special" folder? If they do, and write access is permittd, they may
have splatted the Desktop.ini with inappropriate settings.