Dual Boot Documents Folder

[marco]

I have "My Documents" on a third drive in my PC. Originally only XPPro used
this but now I have a dual boot situation and I would like to use this
folder whichever OS I boot to. Is ther a way to do this easily? I'm
frightened to Take Ownership in Vista in case I screw things up for XP Pro.

 

[Richard Urban]

Go to Start | User name (in right column - usually at the top) You will see
a window with all of your folders.

Right click on a folder and go to properties. There is a tab for "location",
wherever it may be located. Look for the "move" button from here. Follow the
prompts. Doing it this way is the simplest and cleanest way to customize
your setup.


--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Chad Harris]

Yes there is. Don't be frightened to take ownership of any folder anywhere
on a multi or dual boot whether from Vista desktop accessing XP or vice
versa or on either.

Remember the Preisdent that the goofey decider compares himself to often
said:

"The only thing you have to fear is fear itself."

CH

 

[Jimmy Brush]

Yes there is. Don't be frightened to take ownership of any folder

anywhere on a multi or dual boot whether from Vista desktop accessing XP
or vice versa or on either.

Actually, one shouldn't mess around with ownership when dual booting, as it
could cause access problems. If you are being denied access to folders from
other operating systems, simply adding a permission on the folder that gives
your username full control should be sufficient and should not require you
to change ownership.

 

[marco]

Problem here is that I can't do anything to the permissions unless I take
ownership...and windows warns about the dangers of that right there.

I have the same username and password on both OS's but that is obviously not
enough!

I thought about removing the security from My documents under XP but I'd
rather have My documents private.
Actually, I have problems with other data folders created in XP from Vista
unless I take ownership, even ones that were accessible to anyone under XP.
Seems like Vista is a lot more security conscious than XP but some things
sure take some working out!

 

[Jimmy Brush]

Problem here is that I can't do anything to the permissions unless I take

ownership...and windows warns about the dangers of that right there.

This is highly unusual, as in Windows XP administrators are usually granted
permission to change permissions on user profile folders, and Windows Vista
can use this as well (even tho the permissions were applied by Windows XP,
"administrators" is generic between the two, so they carry over).

If you have to take ownership, then do it, but give the administrators group
ownership, not your specific username - as long as you are an administrator
in the other operating system, this should allow things to keep working .

Once you take ownership, grant your vista user full control by adding a
permission in the security tab.

Then, if you want, you can reboot back to XP, and take ownership from XP
giving ownership to your username in XP, and that should set things back to
the way things were, except you now have access to the folder from Vista
thanks to the permission you added earlier.

I have the same username and password on both OS's but that is obviously
not enough!

Correct, it goes by your user accounts, where are represented by a number
that is generated. Even though your user names are the same in Vista and XP,
they have different numbers, so the permissions do not apply accross
operating systems. The only expcetions are the well-known groups, such as
Administrators - they have similar enough numbers to make them communicable.

I thought about removing the security from My documents under XP but I'd
rather have My documents private.

Good idea.

Actually, I have problems with other data folders created in XP from Vista
unless I take ownership, even ones that were accessible to anyone under
XP.

Yes, this makes sense - however, in the majority of cases, taking ownership
should not be necessary, as it should let you change the permissions on the
folders without forcing you to take ownership.

Seems like Vista is a lot more security conscious than XP but some things
sure take some working out!

Actually, XP is just as security conscious; it's just that running as an
admin in XP bypasses all this security, whereas this is not the case in
Vista

 

[marco]

Ah Ha! That works I now have a common My Documents folder...Thanks so much.

Now if you could just pop over to the network sharing folder and answer my
VPN Issue (Marco) Questions I'd be a really happy chappie ....... For Now!

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

"My Document" in Vista is nothing more than a shell pointer to the Documents
folder for the logged on user. Taking ownership or changing permissions will
do nothing to change this.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org