How many user folders are supposed to be under "Documents andsettings"?

[James]

I got this machine off ebay with XP already installed. When I look
under "documents and settings", there seem to be a lot of user folders
with basically the same set of subfolders i.e.
Application Data, Cookies, Desktop, Favorites, Local Settings, My
Documents, NetHood, etc.

How many sets of these are there supposed to be? Right now under
documents and settings there are 7 of these folders - Administrator,
All Users, All users.windows, Default User, Default User.Windows,
mike, Mike.Mike-(followed by some nums and letters), Mike~1~MIK

Except for the last one Mike~1~MIK, they all have many of the above
mentioned subfolders - Favorites, Local Settings, etc. Some are
empty, some aren't.

Why would there be so many redundant folders like this? It makes
searching for some things a pain. Is there a way to consolidate, get
rid of some of them without messing things up?

Thanks for all assistance.

 

[Olórin]

I got this machine off ebay with XP already installed. When I look
under "documents and settings", there seem to be a lot of user folders
with basically the same set of subfolders i.e.
Application Data, Cookies, Desktop, Favorites, Local Settings, My
Documents, NetHood, etc.

How many sets of these are there supposed to be? Right now under
documents and settings there are 7 of these folders - Administrator,
All Users, All users.windows, Default User, Default User.Windows,
mike, Mike.Mike-(followed by some nums and letters), Mike~1~MIK

Except for the last one Mike~1~MIK, they all have many of the above
mentioned subfolders - Favorites, Local Settings, etc. Some are
empty, some aren't.

Why would there be so many redundant folders like this? It makes
searching for some things a pain. Is there a way to consolidate, get
rid of some of them without messing things up?

Thanks for all assistance.

It's been used, it's not a fresh install, so my advice would be:

1) If you've been given the capability of wiping and reinstalling XP from
scratch, do that (having backed up any files you created and need to keep).

2) If you haven't been given that capability, seek to obtain it from the
seller, then do (1).

3) If you *really* can't do the above for any reasons: log on as
administrator and delete all accounts as appearing in Control Panel > User
Accounts. Create one for yourself, log in and use that. Do as thorough a
check as you can - who knows what's on it? Viruses, spyware, keyloggers,
rootkits, illegal files, pirated software, auto-starting apps you don't want
hogging resources, etc etc. But you really would be *much* better off
starting over, IMO.

 

[Don Phillipson]

It's been used, it's not a fresh install, so my advice would be:

1) If you've been given the capability of wiping and reinstalling XP from
scratch, do that (having backed up any files you created and need to keep).
. . .
3) If you *really* can't do the above for any reasons: log on as
administrator and delete all accounts as appearing in Control Panel > User
Accounts. Create one for yourself, log in and use that. Do as thorough a
check as you can - who knows what's on it? Viruses, spyware, keyloggers,
rootkits, illegal files, pirated software, auto-starting apps you don't want
hogging resources, etc etc. But you really would be *much* better off
starting over, IMO.

The main question is whether you want to save Folders and Documents
(and settings) as currently used by either Administrator or whichever
User you are every day. If so, you can use the F&D Wizard (customizable)
to save data to the hard drive, then create new users (Admin or Mike or
both). You can then reinstal if you like: then import (via Wizard) your
settings
for the new user(s), and only lastly erase the unwanted old users.

 

[Big_Al]

I got this machine off ebay with XP already installed. When I look
under "documents and settings", there seem to be a lot of user folders
with basically the same set of subfolders i.e.
Application Data, Cookies, Desktop, Favorites, Local Settings, My
Documents, NetHood, etc.

How many sets of these are there supposed to be? Right now under
documents and settings there are 7 of these folders - Administrator,
All Users, All users.windows, Default User, Default User.Windows,
mike, Mike.Mike-(followed by some nums and letters), Mike~1~MIK

Except for the last one Mike~1~MIK, they all have many of the above
mentioned subfolders - Favorites, Local Settings, etc. Some are
empty, some aren't.

Why would there be so many redundant folders like this? It makes
searching for some things a pain. Is there a way to consolidate, get
rid of some of them without messing things up?

Thanks for all assistance.

All the other good advice not withstanding, the number of folders in
documents and settings is dependent upon how many programs you have that
want to store stuff in there. Its your documents and settings so if you
take that to an extreme, then every program would write a "setting"
there. And since each user has a folder, that makes it just great for
each program to save a different set of settings per user.
The scheme may seem redundant to you, in your world, but if I have 4
people using my PC, I don't want everyone having the same IE favorites
right? If you reload as Olorin suggested, life will be easier & more
logical.