Folders disappearing after .NET Framework install

[Glenn Shaw]

Sincere apologies if someone has posted on this matter previously.

I'm running Windows XP Professional SP2 on an Athlon XP 1900+ system
with a 40GB internal hard disk and 1GB of RAM.

A couple weeks ago, I purchased a Maxtor OneTouch II 200GB USB external
hard drive for use as a backup for the internal HD. After connecting the
external drive, I installed the drive's software, which included Dantz'
Retrospect Express SE backup software. During the install of Retrospect
Express, I was asked if I wanted to install the .NET Framework, to which
I replied Yes. After rebooting, I discovered something very unusual in
Windows Explorer: two user folders -- one of which is my usual user
folder -- inexplicably disappeared from the My Computer window.

With the My Computer window in Windows Explorer set to Tiles, with files
sorted by name and displayed by group, there is a section labelled
"Files Stored on This Computer". Prior to the Retrospect/.NET
installation, I had three folders in that section:

- Shared Documents
- Glenn Shaw's Documents
- Chang WuFei's Documents

(the "Chang WuFei" account being an Administrator account I created for
regular maintenance purposes, reserving WinXP's default Administrator
account for emergencies)

After the Retrospect/.NET installation, when I login with my regular
(Power User) account, the last two folders disappeared from the "Files
Stored..." section, leaving only the Shared Documents folder. The
folders do appear in My Computer as they did before the Retrospect/.NET
installation if I login with an administrative account.

I immediately suspected the .NET Framework, because about a year ago I
elected to install the .NET Framework as part of a suggestion made by
Windows Update. When I did so, the same thing happened -- the user
folders disappeared from My Computer under my regular login -- until I
uninstalled the .NET Framework; once that was done, the missing folders
returned.

Is there a way I can restore the missing folders to My Computer under my
normal login without uninstalling the .NET Framework? I've looked in the
Knowledge Base without success, and even looked through the .NET
Configuration 1.1 Control Panel to see if any settings there might help,
again without success.

Another oddity, which may or may not be related to the .NET Framework:
under my regular login, Windows thinks that the Documents and Settings
folder is a video folder -- the section "System Tasks" changes to "Video
Tasks" under these conditions.

Any suggestions or comments would be highly appreciated.

TIA,

 

[Sharon F]

Sincere apologies if someone has posted on this matter previously.

I'm running Windows XP Professional SP2 on an Athlon XP 1900+ system
with a 40GB internal hard disk and 1GB of RAM.

A couple weeks ago, I purchased a Maxtor OneTouch II 200GB USB external
hard drive for use as a backup for the internal HD. After connecting the
external drive, I installed the drive's software, which included Dantz'
Retrospect Express SE backup software. During the install of Retrospect
Express, I was asked if I wanted to install the .NET Framework, to which
I replied Yes. After rebooting, I discovered something very unusual in
Windows Explorer: two user folders -- one of which is my usual user
folder -- inexplicably disappeared from the My Computer window.

With the My Computer window in Windows Explorer set to Tiles, with files
sorted by name and displayed by group, there is a section labelled
"Files Stored on This Computer". Prior to the Retrospect/.NET
installation, I had three folders in that section:

- Shared Documents
- Glenn Shaw's Documents
- Chang WuFei's Documents

(the "Chang WuFei" account being an Administrator account I created for
regular maintenance purposes, reserving WinXP's default Administrator
account for emergencies)

After the Retrospect/.NET installation, when I login with my regular
(Power User) account, the last two folders disappeared from the "Files
Stored..." section, leaving only the Shared Documents folder. The
folders do appear in My Computer as they did before the Retrospect/.NET
installation if I login with an administrative account.

I immediately suspected the .NET Framework, because about a year ago I
elected to install the .NET Framework as part of a suggestion made by
Windows Update. When I did so, the same thing happened -- the user
folders disappeared from My Computer under my regular login -- until I
uninstalled the .NET Framework; once that was done, the missing folders
returned.

Is there a way I can restore the missing folders to My Computer under my
normal login without uninstalling the .NET Framework? I've looked in the
Knowledge Base without success, and even looked through the .NET
Configuration 1.1 Control Panel to see if any settings there might help,
again without success.

Another oddity, which may or may not be related to the .NET Framework:
under my regular login, Windows thinks that the Documents and Settings
folder is a video folder -- the section "System Tasks" changes to "Video
Tasks" under these conditions.

Any suggestions or comments would be highly appreciated.

TIA,

Long shot: Try installing Tweak UI for XP. It should find and list all
valid accounts on the system. You can then check the boxes for the ones you
want displayed on the Welcome screen (including the default Administrator
account that is normally hidden if other user accounts are present).

For the video folder customization, is that for the main Document and
Settings folder? If yes and you find a desktop.ini folder in its root,
delete it.

 

[Glenn Shaw]

Sharon F wrote in microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:

Long shot: Try installing Tweak UI for XP. It should find and list all
valid accounts on the system. You can then check the boxes for the
ones you want displayed on the Welcome screen (including the default
Administrator account that is normally hidden if other user accounts
are present).

A long shot, indeed: first, the problem I'm having occurs on the "My
Computer" screen in Windows Explorer, not the Welcome screen that comes
up when XP is started. Second, there seems to be nothing in TweakUI for
XP (which I already have installed) that would correct my problem --
I've gone through every possible option without success.

For the video folder customization, is that for the main Document and
Settings folder? If yes and you find a desktop.ini folder in its root,
delete it.

There was no desktop.ini folder in the main Document and Settings
folder, but I did manage to change it back to a regular Documents folder
(right-click on any open space, choose "Properties", click the Customize
tab, choose "Documents (for any file type)" from the "Use this folder
type as a template:" pop-up under "What kind of folder do you want?").
My next question is: Will this change stick through the next restart?

Thanks for the help, Sharon.

 

[Sharon F]

A long shot, indeed: first, the problem I'm having occurs on the "My
Computer" screen in Windows Explorer, not the Welcome screen that comes
up when XP is started. Second, there seems to be nothing in TweakUI for
XP (which I already have installed) that would correct my problem --
I've gone through every possible option without success.

Sorry. Don't know why I thought the names were missing on the welcome
screen.

There is another setting in TweakUI, "show documents stored on this
computer" that will show/hide users' document folders from the first screen
in My Computer. This setting will only work if the bit responsible for the
display of these folders was somehow toggled off. Using TweakUI lets you
toggle it back on.

 

[Glenn Shaw]

Sharon F wrote in microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:

There is another setting in TweakUI, "show documents stored on this
computer" that will show/hide users' document folders from the first
screen in My Computer. This setting will only work if the bit
responsible for the display of these folders was somehow toggled off.
Using TweakUI lets you toggle it back on.

Hmm. Which version of TweakUI are you using, Sharon? I've got 2.10.0.0
for Windows XP (SP1 and higher) and Windows Server 2003, and I don't see
such a setting anywhere.

Anyway, I think I may have solved my problem in a roundabout way, but I
don't know exactly *how* I solved it.

This morning, I needed to login under my maintenance admin account to
fix something with Firefox (it wasn't letting me install new search
items in its Search Bar), and decided to visit the Computer Management
Control Panel to look at my regular user account. (After my initial post
on this thread, I had changed my regular account from a Power User
[which it was prior to the .NET Framework install] to a plain User
account to see if that would help with the disappearing folders problem
[it didn't].) So today I went to Control Panel > Administrative Tools >
Computer Management > System Tools > Local Users and Groups > Groups
(whew!) and added my regular account back into the Power Users group.
While there, I noticed that an additional account had been added called
"ASP.NET Machine Account" -- maybe something that was added by the .NET
Framework. Thinking that this may be a potential security loophole, I
used the Computer Management CP to disable the account.

When I logged off and logged back in under my regular account, my "Glenn
Shaw's Documents" folder reappeared in the My Computer window. (I don't
mind the "Chang WuFei's Documents" still being invisible, since I think
that document folders for admin accounts should be hidden even from
Power Users.)

I'm happy that I fixed the problem, but now I'm wondering which thing I
did fixed it: temporarily switching my regular account from Power User
to User and back again, or disabling the ASP.NET Machine Account.

Ah, well. All's right with my world once again -- for now.

Thanks for your help, Sharon.

Kind regards,

 

[Sharon F]

Hmm. Which version of TweakUI are you using, Sharon? I've got 2.10.0.0
for Windows XP (SP1 and higher) and Windows Server 2003, and I don't see
such a setting anywhere.

Using the same version. My Computer is the branch that has "file stored on
this computer." I was going from memory and misquoted that setting. Sorry.

This morning, I needed to login under my maintenance admin account to
fix something with Firefox (it wasn't letting me install new search
items in its Search Bar), and decided to visit the Computer Management
Control Panel to look at my regular user account. (After my initial post
on this thread, I had changed my regular account from a Power User
[which it was prior to the .NET Framework install] to a plain User
account to see if that would help with the disappearing folders problem
[it didn't].) So today I went to Control Panel > Administrative Tools >
Computer Management > System Tools > Local Users and Groups > Groups
(whew!) and added my regular account back into the Power Users group.
While there, I noticed that an additional account had been added called
"ASP.NET Machine Account" -- maybe something that was added by the .NET
Framework. Thinking that this may be a potential security loophole, I
used the Computer Management CP to disable the account.

When I logged off and logged back in under my regular account, my "Glenn
Shaw's Documents" folder reappeared in the My Computer window. (I don't
mind the "Chang WuFei's Documents" still being invisible, since I think
that document folders for admin accounts should be hidden even from
Power Users.)

I'm happy that I fixed the problem, but now I'm wondering which thing I
did fixed it: temporarily switching my regular account from Power User
to User and back again, or disabling the ASP.NET Machine Account.

Ah, well. All's right with my world once again -- for now.

The .NET account is an addition by the installation of the framework. It is
a local account and used by local applications built around the .NET
framework. Not really a security issue. I find it strange that disabling it
caused your documents to appear again. I think maybe changing back to Power
User contributed more to its return.

One thing to keep in mind when working with accounts and security policies,
these are loaded at startup so most changes won't take effect until the
next logon.

Is it possible that you started out as a power user. Made the account
change *and* installed .NET from that status. When you restarted, the
account change would have been updated and the .NET account would have been
created. Perhaps something tripped over something else during the process?
Kind of scary to think that would be possible but *something* happened that
was unexpected and undesirable.

Regardless, I'm glad that it's fixed now.

For the other account, the maintenance admin account: I agree with you. Not
seeing its folders makes a little more sense when you consider that you're
logged on with another account (power user) that does not have equal
privileges.

Also, if this is the original default Administrator account, it becomes
hidden and drops off the welcome screen and other Windows radar when other
accounts are present. In this case, it's normal for those folders not to
show in the "files stored on this computer" section of My Computer unless
you are logged on with that account.

 

[Glenn Shaw]

Sharon F wrote in microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:

Using the same version. My Computer is the branch that has "file
stored on this computer." I was going from memory and misquoted that
setting. Sorry.

It's not entirely your fault, Sharon. I had tried looking for the
option on TweakUI while logged in with my maintenance admin account, and
discovered that that option ("My Computer Icons" > "Files Stored on This
Computer") is only available to admin-level accounts (I couldn't see it
under my regular login). Moreover, the setting affects the entire
section, not select folders -- unchecking the option removes the "Files
Stored..." section from My Computer completely.

The .NET account is an addition by the installation of the framework.
It is a local account and used by local applications built around the
.NET framework. Not really a security issue. I find it strange that
disabling it caused your documents to appear again. I think maybe
changing back to Power User contributed more to its return.

Unfortunately, I spoke too soon. When I checked the My Computer window
again after I read your last post, the "Glenn Shaw's Documents" folder
disappeared again.

Keeping in mind your comment about changes to accounts and security
policies not taking effect until the next login, I did the following:

1) Restarted my PC.
2) Logged in under my maintenance admin, deleted my account from the
Power User group, re-enabled the ASP.NET Machine Account, then
restarted.
3) Logged in under my maintenance admin again, and added my account back
to the Power User group. I also checked the Folder Properties of the
"Glen Shaw's Documents" folder to make sure that I had the proper access
privileges, then restarted again.
4) Logged in under my regular account. The "Glenn Shaw's Documents"
folder was *still* missing.

Then I thought about it for a minute, then...

5) Logged back in as maintenance admin. I did only *one thing* -- I
*disabled the ASP.NET Machine Account* -- then logged off and rebooted.
6) Logged in under regular account -- the folder's back!
7) Logged off and powered down. Left the PC off for about half an hour
while I baked a pizza.
8) After the pizza came out of the oven, I started up the PC, logged in
and checked My Computer -- and the folder was still there.

I'm beginning to think that the .NET Framework, and the ASP.NET Machine
Account it created, is to blame -- as I mentioned at the beginning of
this thread, I had last installed it several months ago during a Windows
Update session; when I found the folders missing at that time, I
uninstalled the .NET Framework, and the folders came back.

Ah, well. Call it par for the course. Anyway, the folder's back, and I
created a backup plan -- putting a shortcut to the My Documents folder
on the Desktop -- in case the problem recurrs.

If it gets to be any more of an annoyance, I'm dumping the .NET
Framework and any application that requires it. IMHO, it shouldn't be
required by any non-enterprise level software, especially software that
requires extensive interaction by inexperienced users.