Documents and Setting multiple user folders confusion

[Guest]

Hello, I'm trying to sort out a home network with 3 computers and have run
into a problem. What I'm trying to do is to create network shortcuts on the
desktops of each of the computers for each other's desktop.

One of my computers, call it MAIN, has 4 different user folders under
Documents and Settings named ADMINISTRATOR, ALL USERS, DEFAULT USER, and
USER. Important files or folders are scattered through the different
account's desktop folders. In the CONTROL PANEL/USER ACCOUNTS only MAIN and
GUEST are listed, since there is only one user for this computer. When I log
on as MAIN (the only choice I have) the desktop folder that opens seems to be
rooted in All Users.

My question is, can I safely move desktop items from the other account's
desktop folders into my ALL USERS desktop folder. I'm trying to simplify the
creation of shortcuts for the other users on the network. I don't want to
have to create 4 network shortcuts for all the desktop folders on the MAIN
computer.

An additional question is, can I delete the other account folders manually?
I'm not given this option in the CONTROL PANEL/USER ACCOUNTS, since only two
accounts are listed.

Any advice, suggestions, links would be very very welcome. It's all very
confusing to me. And thanks for reading this. I hope I was thorough.

 

[Pegasus]

Hello, I'm trying to sort out a home network with 3 computers and have
run
into a problem. What I'm trying to do is to create network shortcuts on
the
desktops of each of the computers for each other's desktop.

One of my computers, call it MAIN, has 4 different user folders under
Documents and Settings named ADMINISTRATOR, ALL USERS, DEFAULT USER, and
USER. Important files or folders are scattered through the different
account's desktop folders. In the CONTROL PANEL/USER ACCOUNTS only MAIN
and
GUEST are listed, since there is only one user for this computer. When I
log
on as MAIN (the only choice I have) the desktop folder that opens seems to
be
rooted in All Users.

My question is, can I safely move desktop items from the other account's
desktop folders into my ALL USERS desktop folder. I'm trying to simplify
the
creation of shortcuts for the other users on the network. I don't want to
have to create 4 network shortcuts for all the desktop folders on the MAIN
computer.

An additional question is, can I delete the other account folders
manually?
I'm not given this option in the CONTROL PANEL/USER ACCOUNTS, since only
two
accounts are listed.

Any advice, suggestions, links would be very very welcome. It's all very
confusing to me. And thanks for reading this. I hope I was thorough.

Your confusion is caused by you mixing up "accounts" and "profile folders".

When you first log on under a given account (e.g. Richard) then Windows
will create a profile folder "c:\documents and settings\Richard". This is
the place where your Desktop and Start Menu items reside. Sharing
this desktop with other users or machines is NOT a good idea.

The profile folder "c:\documents and settings\Richard" gets built from
the template folder "c:\documents and settings\default user". This is
NOT an account and you must NOT delete this folder. If you do
then you won't be able to create new profiles for new users.

The profile folder "c:\documents and settings\all users" contains items
that are visible to all users, not just to "Richard". This is NOT account
and you should NOT delete this folder.

If you want a desktop shortcut to be visible to all users on your
machine then you should move it from "c:\documents and
settings\Richard\Desktop"
to "c:\Documents and settings\all users\Desktop".

 

[Rock]

Hello, I'm trying to sort out a home network with 3 computers and have
run
into a problem. What I'm trying to do is to create network shortcuts on
the
desktops of each of the computers for each other's desktop.

One of my computers, call it MAIN, has 4 different user folders under
Documents and Settings named ADMINISTRATOR, ALL USERS, DEFAULT USER, and
USER. Important files or folders are scattered through the different
account's desktop folders. In the CONTROL PANEL/USER ACCOUNTS only MAIN
and
GUEST are listed, since there is only one user for this computer. When I
log
on as MAIN (the only choice I have) the desktop folder that opens seems to
be
rooted in All Users.

My question is, can I safely move desktop items from the other account's
desktop folders into my ALL USERS desktop folder. I'm trying to simplify
the
creation of shortcuts for the other users on the network. I don't want to
have to create 4 network shortcuts for all the desktop folders on the MAIN
computer.

An additional question is, can I delete the other account folders
manually?
I'm not given this option in the CONTROL PANEL/USER ACCOUNTS, since only
two
accounts are listed.

Any advice, suggestions, links would be very very welcome. It's all very
confusing to me. And thanks for reading this. I hope I was thorough.

In addition to Pegasus' post, Administrator is the built in Administrator
account. The folder you see for Administrator is the profile folder for
that account. It cannot nor should you try to delete it. It is a fall back
account, that you can use if something damages the normal working account.
Give it a strong password, and set it aside. When another account with
admin privileges is created the built in Administrator account is hidden.
To login to it, for XP Pro at the Welcome Screen do Ctrl-Alt-Del twice to
bring up the classic login box. Enter Administrator for the user name and
the password for that account.

For XP Home restart the computer go to Safe Mode. Administrator appears on
the Welcome Screen.

 

[Guest]

Thank you Pegasus and Rock. Your suggestions and education were very
helpful. I was able to sort out the issues I was having. But it's time to
hit the books and study networking!

Take good care,

Richard