Multiple Folders/Access

[JOHN SHIELS]

After a HD crash and replacement, reinstalling XP Home and restoring from an
external drive I apparently made a number of poor selections the result of
which is a jumble of access denied files or actions.



How can I straighten out this mess?



There are three sets of files and two "users" I believe.



The three are:

Administrator

All Users

John Shiels



And the following folders appear on two or more of these entities in some
instances the folders are "empty" and in others some folders have entires in
two or more file sets.



The folders appearing one or more times are:

Cookies

Desktop (on Admin Desktop has a folder "Desktop"

Favorites

My Documents

Shared Documents

Start Menu (on all three)

User Data ( XP updates)

Windows (only on John Shiels)



My objective is to make sense without losing folders or moving them to a
location for which I will not have access. There is only one user- me.

Thank you

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi John,

I guess I don't understand completely what you are asking. Is it that you
can't access the original user folders? Or is it that you want to know what
to remove or where to place it?

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Windows
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

 

[JOHN SHIELS]

Rick-

Good question.
1. How do I reset access so that I can access everything?
2. What safe procedure would permit me to rearrange and combine folders so
that Desktop, Start Menu, etc. appear in just one place vs. Admin, All Users
& John Shiels?
Jack

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi John,

1) You need to take ownership of them. Right-click the folder, select
properties. Go to the security tab and click advanced. You can take control
of the folders on the owner tab. For the security tab to appear in a WinXP
Pro system, you must disable simple file sharing in the control panel/folder
options/view tab. For a WinXP Home system, you must restart in safe mode and
logon as administrator. More details here:

HOW TO: Take Ownership of a File or Folder in Windows XP [Q308421]
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421

2) By design of WinXP, there will be a subset of the user folders under each
profile. Items that you want everyone to have access to should be placed in
the "All Users" folder subsets, private items should be kept to the
user-defined ones. For instance, my wife has no use for debugging tools, so
the links to them in the start/program menu are kept under my profile, but
shared favorites are kept in the all users start/favorites menu. Rearrange
things to your liking, but do not attempt to remove the folders entirely
(doesn't mean you can't leave them empty, but they are system folders and
must remain in place).

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Windows
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

 

[JOHN SHIELS]

Rick,
Many thanks.
Jack

Hi John,

1) You need to take ownership of them. Right-click the folder, select
properties. Go to the security tab and click advanced. You can take control
of the folders on the owner tab. For the security tab to appear in a WinXP
Pro system, you must disable simple file sharing in the control panel/folder
options/view tab. For a WinXP Home system, you must restart in safe mode and
logon as administrator. More details here:

HOW TO: Take Ownership of a File or Folder in Windows XP [Q308421]
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421

2) By design of WinXP, there will be a subset of the user folders under each
profile. Items that you want everyone to have access to should be placed in
the "All Users" folder subsets, private items should be kept to the
user-defined ones. For instance, my wife has no use for debugging tools, so
the links to them in the start/program menu are kept under my profile, but
shared favorites are kept in the all users start/favorites menu. Rearrange
things to your liking, but do not attempt to remove the folders entirely
(doesn't mean you can't leave them empty, but they are system folders and
must remain in place).

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Windows
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

Rick-

Good question.
1. How do I reset access so that I can access everything?
2. What safe procedure would permit me to rearrange and combine folders so
that Desktop, Start Menu, etc. appear in just one place vs. Admin, All
Users
& John Shiels?
Jack
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