"My Documents" shows up several times, how to remove

[wazzup]

Somewhere along the way, my "My Documents" folder started
showing up in three places when looking from Windows
Explorer. I think they all point to the same files
inside, but not sure what happened, and seems to create
access issues.

It shows up at the top of Explorer as My Documents, then
again under Documents and Settings / usrname / My Documents


and then yet again under UserName My Documents.

Any ideas ?

 

[Kelly]

Thanks, David! Said better than I have ever read. )

/xp_tweaks.htm

Top 10 Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/top10faqs.htm


It doing what it's supposed to do. Supposed to be in all three locations.
The first way is it's normal location in the namespace. The second is for
conviance (everyone's My Docs is in My Computer), and the third location is
where the actual files in My Docs is stored are stored (technically this is
not My Docs but the My Docs storage folder - for instance this folder has no
"magic" properties like the first My Docs - look at the properties).

Things like MyDocs are virtual folders. They may or may not contain files.
Control Panel is another virtual folder, and this one that does not show
files but list programs registered as control panel applications - they come
from cpl files in system32 folder and other entries specified only in the
registry.

My Docs "magic" features relate to it's display name (eg its Yourname
Documents in My Computer) and the ability to change which folder will
actually hold the files.

Fonts folder "magic" features is to display font files specially and allow
fonts to be installed. The Internet History folder shows entry in a data
file as if they were individual objects. The Temporary Internet Files folder
shows multiple folders as if they were one (look at another users).

The Desktop virtual folder shows what is stored in two locations
c:\D&S\all users\Desktop and
c:\D&S\<your name>\desktop.

 

[wazzup]

David,
Thanks very much that really helps. So does that mean
that for any file I store under say My Documents or My
Pictures(which is under my documents) I should be able to
reach from all three of those "My Documents" locations ?
Because there-in lies the problem. It seems like
sometimes I have to pick the correct "My Docs" folder to
find what I'm looking for, even though the sub-folder
structure under each "My Docs" looks to be the same. If I
don't pick the right one, it's sometimes as if the file is
simply not there under the correct sub-folder.

The other problem is related to importing files into
MovieMaker (which still works with slightly older AVI
files but not ones put in recently), and I thought maybe
these two things were related, but don't really know.
Does this make sense ?

-----Original Message-----
It doing what it's supposed to do. Supposed to be in all

three locations. The first way is it's normal location in
the namespace. The second is for conviance (everyone's My
Docs is in My Computer), and the third location is where
the actual files in My Docs is stored are stored
(technically this is not My Docs but the My Docs storage
folder - for instance this folder has no "magic"
properties like the first My Docs - look at the
properties).

Things like MyDocs are virtual folders. They may or may

not contain files. Control Panel is another virtual
folder, and this one that does not show files but list
programs registered as control panel applications - they
come from cpl files in system32 folder and other entries
specified only in the registry.

My Docs "magic" features relate to it's display name (eg

its Yourname Documents in My Computer) and the ability to
change which folder will actually hold the files.

Fonts folder "magic" features is to display font files

specially and allow fonts to be installed. The Internet
History folder shows entry in a data file as if they were
individual objects. The Temporary Internet Files folder
shows multiple folders as if they were one (look at
another users).

 

[David Candy]

Each is different in storing the position of icons. But this is the only difference. Depending on settings this may not even apply to you

Each view stores it's own view setting but the content is the same..

 

[David Candy]

It's only confusing if you aren't in the same frame as reference as windows is. There are two namespaces - the shell one that users see and the file system (which advanced users see as well).

The file system is part of the Shell's namespace.

The shell namespace is supposed to be a reflection on how computers should work while the file system is the nuts and bolts of how they actually work.

If one has a grasp of file systems, as experience with Dos, Win 3.1, Linux, or most other OSs (but not Macs) then this will inhibit understanding of shell namespaces. As objects in the shell namespace are not always backed by physical storage in the file system. A shell namespace is not a one for one equivelent for a file system.

Only explorer tends to use shell namespaces, most programs need to read/write physical files. The shell provides SaveAs dialogs and this converts the shell namespace to a file system path for the program.

The shell starts at the desktop. You can't really type paths anywhere is the shell namespace but programs have to do it and if translated to english (from gibberish) looks like this
desktop\my computer\c\Windows\System32

 

[Scott]

Um ya sure, that really cleared that up for me. But here is what I see
in Windows Explorer.
In the main tree: My Documents
When I click on "My Computer" I see all my folders plus: My Documents,
Scott's Documents, Shared Documents.
When I click on C drive I see all folders in C, plus: My Documents,
Scotts Documents, Shared Documents, and Documents and settings.
When I click on documents and settings I see: Administrator, All
users, All users.Windows, Default, Default user, Default user.
Windows, Scotty.
Now each of these folders has identical sub-folders when the tree is
expanded, each folder has identical info in it, as I am the only user
and installed windows that way. What purpose do these really serve
except to clutter up the tree and make navigation difficult?