Missing "Shared Documents" folder

[Bill W]

I appear to have broken the "Shared Documents Folder"
mechanism on my XP Pro box. Instead of a "Shared
Documents" folder, I have a "Documents" folder in All
Users which I can't open, explore or drag/drop into, even
from an admin account. The "Documents" folder is all that
appears in the "Other Places" browser view instead of the
expected "Shared Documents" folder; it appears in
the "Other Places" browser view in other accounts as well,
but is also inaccessible from those accounts. The Shared
Pictures and Shared Music folders are also missing from
user accounts.

In properties, the "Documents" folder is marked Read-Only;
it lets me toggle the attribute off, but when I come back
to properties, it's been reset to Read-Only again. If I
try to change the name, I get a message about it being an
OS file that can't be modified. If I try to use "Share
this folder", I get the pop up that tells me to drag it
into the "Shared Documents" folder. From a command
prompt, "Documents" shows up in dir under All Users, but
if I do a dir on Documents itself, I get "file not found".

The "Use simple file sharing" check box in the My Computer
folders options is checked, and I have tried unchecking it
and then rechecking it to see if the configuartion would
be reconstructed, but that didn't appear to work.

I believe the mechanism was originally in place, and
though I'm not entirely sure how I screwed it up, I think
it came as a result of confusing the intent of Shared
Documents with regular network file sharing, and trying to
protect or configure the folder and the other "Shared..."
folders in user accounts.

The box is normally standalone with dial-up. Although I
have a simple two-box LAN, the connection is
usually "Disabled" at the "Connections" icon for the LAN
because of problems on the other box. Since the connection
is Disabled, I don't think the workgroup connection is
playing into this.

Does anyone know of a way to reconstruct the Shared
Documents mechanism short of reinstalling the OS?

Thanks,
Bill W

 

[Kelly]

Hi Bill,

This generally happens when/from moving/rerouting the My Documents folders,
etc.

Suggestions and checkpoints:

1. Go to Start/Run and type in: regsvr32 /i shell32

2..If you have TweakUI installed, go to My Computer/Files Stored on This
Computer and place a check in the box.

3. Check your paths here: Start/Run/Regedit

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell
Folders
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\DocFolderPaths
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell
Folders

Good luck!

 

[Bill W]

Kelly -- Thanks for the tips! Something appears to have
worked, at least partially, in conjunction with the steps
you identified, but I'm not exactly sure what ultimately
fixed it. The "Documents" folder icon that was appearing
in place of the "Shared Documents" folder suddenly
morphed back into "Shared Documents" only after I tried
some of your suggestions, and after I had selected
the "Documents" folder, and just as I checked the "Share
this folder on the network" checkbox in "Share this
folder" dialog. Not sure if this was just coincidental
timing of some lower level refresh that caught up with
the other changes I made per your suggestions, or a
direct result of checking the network sharing box.

The Shared Documents structure appears to have been
restored, though I'm still having numerous permissions
errors with the standard child folders and files, as well
as accessing the content of the folders from other
accounts. I'm having to correct these permissions
manually on a case-by-case basis, which doesn't seem
right, and all of the standard folders involved are
flagged "Read Only" and can't be reset . Is there any
reference to how permissions on Shared Documents and its
child folders/files should actually be set, or any way to
restore them to a default permissions configuration?

The only one of your tips that I couldn't quite figure
out was #2 -- I installed TweakUI, but couldn't figure
out what checkbox you were referring to in My Computer \
Files stored on this computer. Is this the one under the
Folder Options "View" tab? I did use the
TweakUI "Special Folders" tool on Shared Documents, but
I'm not sure what effect it had. The registry settings
were ultimately restored correctly.

Thanks for your help!
Bill

 

[Bill Watkins]

Kelly --

Just a follow-up to my question about restoring the correct permissions -- I
found KB article 304040 - "Description of File Sharing and Permissions in
Windows XP" covers the default permissions of the various sharing mechanisms
in some detail.

Bill W.


Kelly -- Thanks for the tips! Something appears to have
worked, at least partially, in conjunction with the steps
you identified, but I'm not exactly sure what ultimately
fixed it. The "Documents" folder icon that was appearing
in place of the "Shared Documents" folder suddenly
morphed back into "Shared Documents" only after I tried
some of your suggestions, and after I had selected
the "Documents" folder, and just as I checked the "Share
this folder on the network" checkbox in "Share this
folder" dialog. Not sure if this was just coincidental
timing of some lower level refresh that caught up with
the other changes I made per your suggestions, or a
direct result of checking the network sharing box.

The Shared Documents structure appears to have been
restored, though I'm still having numerous permissions
errors with the standard child folders and files, as well
as accessing the content of the folders from other
accounts. I'm having to correct these permissions
manually on a case-by-case basis, which doesn't seem
right, and all of the standard folders involved are
flagged "Read Only" and can't be reset . Is there any
reference to how permissions on Shared Documents and its
child folders/files should actually be set, or any way to
restore them to a default permissions configuration?

The only one of your tips that I couldn't quite figure
out was #2 -- I installed TweakUI, but couldn't figure
out what checkbox you were referring to in My Computer \
Files stored on this computer. Is this the one under the
Folder Options "View" tab? I did use the
TweakUI "Special Folders" tool on Shared Documents, but
I'm not sure what effect it had. The registry settings
were ultimately restored correctly.

Thanks for your help!
Bill