Strange Windows Explorer Behaviour

[Nick Mason]

Sometimes when I open Windows Explorer in the folder list down the left side
there will be a My Pictures and/or a My Video sub folder under the Documents
folder.

When I try and access these folder I can't, I forget the exact message, I
should have noted it! There is also a Pictures folder listed in favourite
links which I can access ad does contain my pictures.

After my initial panic at the thought I couldn't get at my pictures, I do
have backups, I decided that the My Pictures folder under Documents didn't
actually exist, using cmd and what passes for the good old fashioned DOS
prompt showed this to be the case.

Right clicking gave me the option to delete it so I did.

Where it came from I have no idea but what's odd is that every so often it
comes back, I must have deleted it, and others like My Video several times
now.

Does anyone have any idea where it comes from and why?

 

[Frank Saunders MS-MVP IE,OE/WM]

Sometimes when I open Windows Explorer in the folder list down the left
side there will be a My Pictures and/or a My Video sub folder under the
Documents folder.

When I try and access these folder I can't, I forget the exact message, I
should have noted it! There is also a Pictures folder listed in favourite
links which I can access ad does contain my pictures.

After my initial panic at the thought I couldn't get at my pictures, I do
have backups, I decided that the My Pictures folder under Documents didn't
actually exist, using cmd and what passes for the good old fashioned DOS
prompt showed this to be the case.

Right clicking gave me the option to delete it so I did.

Where it came from I have no idea but what's odd is that every so often it
comes back, I must have deleted it, and others like My Video several times
now.

Does anyone have any idea where it comes from and why?

It's called a junction and is there for backwards compatibility with
programs that expect it.

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi Nick,

You're messing with system junction points, and you shouldn't be. The
"My..." folders are not folders, they are junction points that lead to the
actual location of Vista's version of these. For instance, "My Pictures" is
actually C:\Users\<username>\Pictures. The "My" portion has been dropped for
each of these user folders. What you should see in Windows Explorer should
be merely "Pictures", same goes for Documents, Videos, etc. The "My"
junction points exist for compatibility with older software that expects
those folders to be there, they merely act as redirects. They reappear
because they are protected system files.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[Nick Mason]

Hi Nick,

You're messing with system junction points, and you shouldn't be. The
"My..." folders are not folders, they are junction points that lead to the
actual location of Vista's version of these. For instance, "My Pictures"
is actually C:\Users\<username>\Pictures. The "My" portion has been
dropped for each of these user folders. What you should see in Windows
Explorer should be merely "Pictures", same goes for Documents, Videos,
etc. The "My" junction points exist for compatibility with older software
that expects those folders to be there, they merely act as redirects. They
reappear because they are protected system files.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

Rick,
thank you for the explanation, I understand now. It just irritated
me that I could see them when access was denied!

I've set the folder options to hide them in future.