Hi Ignoramus--
In Vista "Documents and Settings" isn't really a folder. It's a "junction
point" - like a soft link, in Unix.
The *real* directory where user data is kept in Vista, is called "C:\Users".
If you use "Users" in place of "Documents and Settings" you should be sweet.
Eg, C:\Users\Ignoramus' Profile on Vista\Documents, etc.
The "Documents and Settings" junction point exists to preserve compatibility
for applications which have this path name hard-coded. Well-behaved
applications should not have a hard-coded "Documents and Settings" string;
they should call SHGetSpecialFolder() instead, to find the User directory on
a system. But just a sad fact of life, many apps out there do look for a
"Documents and Settings" directory ....
"Users" is preferable to "Documents and Settings" because many apps have
problems with path names containing spaces. It also soaks up more chars
from the limited 260 char MAX_PATH length for directory names. Finally,
"Users" is more intuitive for folks coming from Unix and other, more normal
operating system environments
The "Documents and Settings" junction point is usually hidden and not
visible in Explorer. If you are seeing it in an obtrusive way, you may have
turned ON the folder option to see hidden files.
Refs on Junction Points in Vista:
http://www.svrops.com/svrops/articles/jpoints.htm
http://windowsconnected.com/blogs/joshs_blog/archive/2006/09/28/Windows-Vista-Junction-Points.aspx
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/WindowsVistaJunctionsAndMovingMyDocumentsToAnotherDrive.aspx
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/MoreOnVistaReparsePoints.aspx
Good luck,
CH