Documents and Settings folder - extra folders?

  • Thread starter Thread starter spoon2001
  • Start date Start date
S

spoon2001

Here are my folders under \Documents and Settings. Names have been changed
to protect the innocent.

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users.WINDOWS
C:\Documents and Settings\Default User
C:\Documents and Settings\Default User.WINDOWS
C:\Documents and Settings\MyName
C:\Documents and Settings\MyName.FIC
C:\Documents and Settings\MYNAM~1~FIC
C:\Documents and Settings\LocalService
C:\Documents and Settings\LocalService.NT AUTHORITY
C:\Documents and Settings\NetworkService
C:\Documents and Settings\NetworkService.NT AUTHORITY

Any idea why I would have two versions of All Users, Default User, MyName,
Local Service, and Network Service - one without any extension, another with
an extension (e.g. .WINDOWS, .FIC, .NT AUTHORITY?

This did not happen on my previous XP installation. It's a bit confusing.
The folders with the extensions seem to be the ones that are being used.

TIA
 
Hi,

Did you reinstall WinXP in an attempt to correct something? That would
account for it. A reinstall creates new user accounts, you should do a
repair install in the future to preserve current system settings. See:

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_repair_install.htm

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone
 
Hi Rick,

You're right, my problem was caused by reinstalling XP over an old
installation. I had tried a repair installation and it didn't solve a
problem I was having, so I did a whole new install. That's how I ended up
with all those extra folders in the \Documents and Settings folder.

I moved the "old" folders out (from the old installation), and then I tried
to give the original names to the new folders, and point WinXP to the
renamed folders. This was tough because I couldn't just rename the folders,
nor could I copy busy files, or copy over busy files. I finally got it done
in a complicated way - by making multiple copies and moving one inactive set
of folders to an inactive \Documents and Settings folder, then tweaking the
registry to point to \Documents and Settings again. THEN I found that the
registry still had lots of
pointers to the old folder names (e.g. All Users.WINDOWS), and so I used a
global search and replace utility to replace all references to the old
folder names to the new folder names. Even then not everything worked
right. I blew a good part of the afternoon trying to undo my mess - all
because I just didn't like those extensions at the end of the folder names!
(.WINDOWS, etc.)
 
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