Documents and Settings folder - extra folders?

[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

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

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

 

[spoon2001]

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.)