My Documents and C:\My Documents

[Thomas Bartlett]

In my XP setup, on the Desktop appears an icon called 'My Documents'.
Clicking on it opens Windows Explorer. Clicking on the Folders button at
the top of Windows Explorer opens the folders tree on the left side of the
window. At the top of the folders tree is the icon for 'Desktop', and
directly below that is 'My Documents'. Below 'My Documents' is 'My
Computer' which, when opened, reveals icons for each drive. Within the C:
drive is a second folder called 'My Documents', the contents of which are
apparently not the same as the contents of the 'My Documents' folder shown
directly under 'Desktop'. Why not? It's a bit confusing.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

In my XP setup, on the Desktop appears an icon called 'My
Documents'. Clicking on it opens Windows Explorer. Clicking on the
Folders button at the top of Windows Explorer opens the folders
tree on the left side of the window. At the top of the folders
tree is the icon for 'Desktop', and directly below that is 'My
Documents'. Below 'My Documents' is 'My Computer' which, when
opened, reveals icons for each drive. Within the C: drive is a
second folder called 'My Documents', the contents of which are
apparently not the same as the contents of the 'My Documents'
folder shown directly under 'Desktop'. Why not? It's a bit
confusing.

"C:\My Documents\" is not a default Windows XP folder. Something else
created that. DOn't know what, but unless you moved your My Documents
folder and/or another user of your system moved their My Documents folder or
some third-party program created it there by mistake - if nothing in it is
yours and you have backups of all of your stuff and you can locate your My
Documents folder and no one else is using that folder on your system - I
would delete it.

Your user account's "My Documents" folder is located (default) here:

"C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents"

You can get to it easily in this manner:

Start button --> RUN --> type in:
"%USERPROFILE%\My Documents"
--> Click OK.

The actual folder where it is stored should open - if everything is still
set to default.

 

[N. Miller]

In my XP setup, on the Desktop appears an icon called 'My Documents'.
Clicking on it opens Windows Explorer. Clicking on the Folders button at
the top of Windows Explorer opens the folders tree on the left side of the
window. At the top of the folders tree is the icon for 'Desktop', and
directly below that is 'My Documents'. Below 'My Documents' is 'My
Computer' which, when opened, reveals icons for each drive. Within the C:
drive is a second folder called 'My Documents', the contents of which are
apparently not the same as the contents of the 'My Documents' folder shown
directly under 'Desktop'. Why not? It's a bit confusing.

I saw similar on a friend's computer. Apparently he moved some files from
another computer, or did something else, which created the "C:\My
Documenets" folder. A Shenan Stanley states, it is not created by Windows XP
on an install; and I've never seen it on any other Windows XP system,
including my own, I've had access to.

 

[Big_Al]

Shenan Stanley said this on 11/2/2009 12:09 PM:

"C:\My Documents\" is not a default Windows XP folder. Something else
created that. DOn't know what, but unless you moved your My Documents
folder and/or another user of your system moved their My Documents folder or
some third-party program created it there by mistake - if nothing in it is
yours and you have backups of all of your stuff and you can locate your My
Documents folder and no one else is using that folder on your system - I
would delete it.

Your user account's "My Documents" folder is located (default) here:

"C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents"

You can get to it easily in this manner:

Start button --> RUN --> type in:
"%USERPROFILE%\My Documents"
--> Click OK.

The actual folder where it is stored should open - if everything is still
set to default.

Didn't older win98 or such place the "My Docs" there under C:\? I
may be wrong, but if so, and XP was an in place upgrade that might be
from the old system.

 

[Thomas Bartlett]

Thank you. I followed the path "C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My
Documents"
and found four folders under 'My Documents'.

However, on my Desktop is an icon called 'My Documents'. When clicked it
opens Windows Explorer, which shows this 'My Documents' folder with the same
tree of sub-folders that appears when the Start menu's 'My Documents' icon
is clicked. This 'My Documents' shows no fewer than 45 (yes, forty-five!)
sub-folders under it.

Moreover, the four folders at the end of the path "C:\Documents and
Settings\<username>\My Documents" are apparently not contained among those
45 under the 'My Documents' icon that appears on the Desktop.

So, what's the difference between these two 'My Documents' folders?

My practical problem right now is that I'm trying to use the Iomega
QuikProtect backup program. Its folder tree doesn't even show the 'My
Documents' folder that appears on my desktop with its 45 folders, many of
which I'd like to backup. The QP tree is headed by the C:\ drive, and
everything else is in a subfolder of that, somewhere.

This is a mystery.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Thank you. I followed the path "C:\Documents and
Settings\<username>\My Documents"
and found four folders under 'My Documents'.

However, on my Desktop is an icon called 'My Documents'. When
clicked it opens Windows Explorer, which shows this 'My Documents'
folder with the same tree of sub-folders that appears when the
Start menu's 'My Documents' icon is clicked. This 'My Documents'
shows no fewer than 45 (yes, forty-five!) sub-folders under it.

Moreover, the four folders at the end of the path "C:\Documents and
Settings\<username>\My Documents" are apparently not contained
among those 45 under the 'My Documents' icon that appears on the
Desktop.
So, what's the difference between these two 'My Documents' folders?

My practical problem right now is that I'm trying to use the Iomega
QuikProtect backup program. Its folder tree doesn't even show the
'My Documents' folder that appears on my desktop with its 45
folders, many of which I'd like to backup. The QP tree is headed by
the C:\ drive, and everything else is in a subfolder of that,
somewhere.
This is a mystery.

How did this system get setup?

Upgrade from an older operating system?

Did you do a clean installation of Windows XP?

Did you setup the user account(s)?

Do you manage the user account(s)?

Beyond the possibility of an upgrade from a previous OS - the My Documents
folder itself can be moved by its owner to another location practically
anywhere. Also - there is a "shared' My Documents under the username "All
Users" (C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\). The questions above could
help pinpoint what has happened.

 

[Thomas Bartlett]

Thank you very much. I don't remember the answers to some of the questions
you asked, about the origins of my existing system setup. However, your
comment, that the 'My Documents' folder could be relocated to another place,
stimulated me to right click on the 'My Documents' icon in the Start menu,
then to click on the 'Properties' option in the popup menu. There I find
the path to the 'My Documents' folder as 'D:\My Documents'. So evidently I
did move it to the non-system drive, but forgot that I had done this.
Problem seems to be solved.

 

[nihovela]

In my XP setup, on the Desktop appears an icon called 'My Documents'.
Clicking on it opens Windows Explorer. Clicking on the Folders button
at
the top of Windows Explorer opens the folders tree on the left side of
the
window. At the top of the folders tree is the icon for 'Desktop', and

directly below that is 'My Documents'. Below 'My Documents' is 'My
Computer' which, when opened, reveals icons for each drive. Within the
C:
drive is a second folder called 'My Documents', the contents of which
are
apparently not the same as the contents of the 'My Documents' folder
shown
directly under 'Desktop'. Why not? It's a bit confusing.

yes, because it separate folder. But My documents folder still include
in C drive