Desktop folder in root of c: drive

[Guest]

I have a Windows XP computer that I am working on and it has a "wierd"
directory structure. There is a DESKTOP folder in the root directory of the
C: drive. This directory appears to contain a copy of most of the files in
the Windows directory (the Windows directory appears normal).
I ran MS Antispyware and looked at the browser restore section. This is
where I found that the default local page was set to
C:\DESKTOP\System32\blank.html. Other sections looked to be reset by the
About:Blank hijack so I have scanned and cleaned for this but don't want to
kill the C:\DESKTOP directory incase this breaks some system settings.
Has anyone else seen this before? If you have what did you do to correct the
problem?

Thank you.

 

[R. McCarty]

You can verify the current "Desktop" path for the user by checking
the Registry at:
HK_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
\Explorer\Shell Folders

Check the Desktop Key in the Right pane.
If the value is not C\Documents & Settings\'UserName', you can
modify and redirect it back to the normal location. After a reboot
you can probably delete the extra "Desktop" folder.

 

[Guest]

The user's desktop is pointing to the proper C:\Document.... folder. The
problem is that there is a DESKTOP folder in the root directory of the C:
drive. This directory looks to be a complete copy of the windows directory
complete with a sytem32 folder. All of the registery settings that would
usually point to C:\Windows\System32 point to C:\DESKTOP\System32.
It appears that some one reinstalled Windows and since the system already
had a C:\Windows folder they placed the new installation in the DESKTOP
folder.
Since everything else seems to be working ok now I will just leave the files
structure as is for the time being.