Documents & Settings Query

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ben Hardy
  • Start date Start date
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Ben Hardy

I'm a little puzzled regarding User Accounts.
I have an Admin account & a User Account set up.
When I look in the Documents & Settings folder there is, as expected
these 2 accounts. However, if I go to the Admin Account sub-folder:
Start Menu\Programs it does not contain hardly any of the items that I
can see in the Start Menu when logged on to the Admin account.
This is the same for the User Account.
The only folder that contains all the Start Menu items is the All Users
sub folder.
Furthermore, the sub-folder 'Desktop' in the Admin Account folder
doesn't show what is on the Desktop when logged into the Admin Account.
What is going on here?
Why have a specific folder such as Documents & Settings\Admin\Desktop
when the contents have no relevance to the actual Admin Desktop.
 
%allusersprofile% is an environment variable that is the path to the All
Users folder.

Typing or pasting %allusersprofile% into the Start | Run box opens to the
Documents and Settings\All Users folder on whatever drive it is located on.

I.e. C:\Documents and Settings\All Users

%userprofile% is an environment variable that is the path to the user's home
folder.

Typing or pasting %userprofile% into the Start | Run box opens to the
Documents and Settings folder on whatever drive it is located on for the
logged in user.

I.e. C:\Documents and Settings\Your Name Here

When logged on as Admin, you should see items from both:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu
and
C:\Documents and Settings\Admin\Start Menu
when you open the Start Menu.

When logged on as User Account, you should see items from both:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu
and
C:\Documents and Settings\User Account\Start Menu
when you open the Start Menu.

The Start Menu that you see is a combination of both of these folders:
%allusersprofile%\Start Menu
and
%userprofile%\Start Menu (For the logged on user)

Same for the Desktop.

The Desktop you see is a combination of two folders.

When Admin is logged on you see both
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop
and
C:\Documents and Settings\Admin\Desktop

When User Account is logged on you see both
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop
and
C:\Documents and Settings\User Account\Desktop

Anything deleted from
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu
or
%allusersprofile%\Start Menu
will disappear from everyone's Start Menu.

Anything deleted from
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop
or
%allusersprofile%\Desktop
will disappear from everyone's Desktop.

Any programs that are installed for All Users, the shortcuts appear in
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu
or
%allusersprofile%\Start Menu
and whatever desktop shortcuts appear in
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop
or
%allusersprofile%\Desktop

Any programs that are installed for just a particular user, those shortcuts
appear in
%userprofile%\Start Menu
and
%userprofile%\Desktop

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
 
Wesley said:
%allusersprofile% is an environment variable that is the path to the All
Users folder.

Typing or pasting %allusersprofile% into the Start | Run box opens to the
Documents and Settings\All Users folder on whatever drive it is located on.

I.e. C:\Documents and Settings\All Users

%userprofile% is an environment variable that is the path to the user's home
folder.

Typing or pasting %userprofile% into the Start | Run box opens to the
Documents and Settings folder on whatever drive it is located on for the
logged in user.

I.e. C:\Documents and Settings\Your Name Here

When logged on as Admin, you should see items from both:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu
and
C:\Documents and Settings\Admin\Start Menu
when you open the Start Menu.

When logged on as User Account, you should see items from both:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu
and
C:\Documents and Settings\User Account\Start Menu
when you open the Start Menu.

The Start Menu that you see is a combination of both of these folders:
%allusersprofile%\Start Menu
and
%userprofile%\Start Menu (For the logged on user)

Same for the Desktop.

The Desktop you see is a combination of two folders.

When Admin is logged on you see both
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop
and
C:\Documents and Settings\Admin\Desktop

When User Account is logged on you see both
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop
and
C:\Documents and Settings\User Account\Desktop

Anything deleted from
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu
or
%allusersprofile%\Start Menu
will disappear from everyone's Start Menu.

Anything deleted from
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop
or
%allusersprofile%\Desktop
will disappear from everyone's Desktop.

Any programs that are installed for All Users, the shortcuts appear in
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu
or
%allusersprofile%\Start Menu
and whatever desktop shortcuts appear in
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop
or
%allusersprofile%\Desktop

Any programs that are installed for just a particular user, those shortcuts
appear in
%userprofile%\Start Menu
and
%userprofile%\Desktop
Click to expand...
Oh well that's odd. Somehow or other I must have messed up when creating
Accounts because I'm not seeing that at all.
At present I have 3 User Accounts as follows:
Admin (Computer Administrator)
User (Limited Account)
Guest (Off)
Lets say I am presently logged in as Admin. Viewing the actual Desktop I
can see some 18 items consisting of several files, shortcuts & folders.
I open Windows Explorer and navigate to the 'Documents & Settings'
folder and there are the following:

1. Administrator (it's Desktop folder is empty)
2. All Users (it's Desktop folder is empty)
3. Admin (the one I'm currently logged in to - It's Desktop Folder
concurs with what I see on My Desktop)
4. User (It's Desktop folder concurs with what is on the User's actual
Desktop)
5. Default User (Desktop folder empty)

In light of what I would expect and what you have outlined above -
something has awry.
Any ideas most welcome
Ben
 
That isn't odd at all. Just the way it's worked out for you.

Just as an experiment, navigate to Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop.
Right click in the right hand pane, point to New and click Text Document.
See if you can see New Text Document.txt on both account's Desktops.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
 
Wesley said:
That isn't odd at all. Just the way it's worked out for you.

Just as an experiment, navigate to Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop.
Right click in the right hand pane, point to New and click Text Document.
See if you can see New Text Document.txt on both account's Desktops.
Click to expand...
That's yet more interesting/puzzling. Yes, Logged on as Administrator
and doing as you say from W. Explorer, a text file appears on the actual
Desktop as it does on the User's Account actual Desktop.
However, from W. Explorer it only appears in Docs & Settings\All
Users\Desktop folder and no others.
If I then do the same -create txt file- on the actual Admin's Desktop it
also appears in the appropriate folder via W. Explorer.
So now although on the actual Admin's Desktop I have textfile1 &
textfile2 showing, from within the folder there is only textfile1!
Where's the sense in that?
BTW, I realize this is a trivial subject but it's puzzling to me
nonetheless.
Ben
 
That's yet more interesting/puzzling. Yes, Logged on as Administrator
and doing as you say from W. Explorer, a text file appears on the actual
Desktop as it does on the User's Account actual Desktop.
However, from W. Explorer it only appears in Docs & Settings\All
Users\Desktop folder and no others.
Correct.

If I then do the same -create txt file- on the actual Admin's Desktop it
also appears in the appropriate folder via W. Explorer.
So now although on the actual Admin's Desktop I have textfile1 &
textfile2 showing, from within the folder there is only textfile1!
Where's the sense in that?
Click to expand...

I don't know about sense. Been this way since Windows 95.

desktop
The on-screen work area on which windows, icons, menus, and dialog boxes
appear.

The Desktop that you see is a virtual folder.

It is a combination of:
%userprofile%\Desktop
and
%allusersprofile%\Desktop

All Users Desktop: Refers to the desktop common for all the users.

User Desktop: Refers to the desktop of that user.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
 
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