User account and related computer settings

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Fernand Thill

How can I find out the relation (or connection) between an user account and
the associated computer settings (folders uner Documents and Settings). On
my home XP PC I have only one account ( my name with administrator
privileges) but a lot of user related folders under "Documents and
Settings". Which one is associated with my user account? Knowing this can I
delete all the remainig? Where can I find these informations?
Thanks for help
Fernand
 
How can I find out the relation (or connection) between an user account and
the associated computer settings (folders uner Documents and Settings). On
my home XP PC I have only one account ( my name with administrator
privileges) but a lot of user related folders under "Documents and
Settings". Which one is associated with my user account? Knowing this can I
delete all the remainig? Where can I find these informations?
Thanks for help
Fernand
Click to expand...

Click Start> Run and type in %userprofile%
Click OK and Windows Explorer will open with the focus on the folders for
the account that is currently logged on.

Other account folders that you might see under Documents and Settings:

Administrator: this is a built in account named Administrator (and belongs
to the administrator group) that is created when XP is first installed.
Create another user account and this one will drop off of the welcome
screen. This account should be kept as it is especially handy as a "spare"
if your account corrupts to the point that you can't log on. It is also a
useful account for troubleshooting purposes.

All Users: Contains settings that relate to all users.

Default User: A template used to create new accounts.

Local Service: a machine account used by programs to perform functions on
behalf of the user.

Network Service: also a machine account but info stored is related to
network/internet.

I do not recommend deleting any of the above account folders.

If there are users that no longer need an account, delete them from Control
Panel> User Accounts. Then check Documents and Settings. If there are any
folders left for user that was removed, they can be deleted.
 
I appriciate your valuable and clear explanations. I learned a lot.
But can you tell me why I have duplicated account folders, for example:
All Users and All Users.Windows
Default Users and Default Users.Windows
LocalService and LocalService.NT Authority and LocalService.001
only to mention these ones.
It's troubling for me.
Fernand
 
Fernand Thill said:
I appriciate your valuable and clear explanations. I learned a lot.
But can you tell me why I have duplicated account folders, for example:
All Users and All Users.Windows
Default Users and Default Users.Windows
LocalService and LocalService.NT Authority and LocalService.001
only to mention these ones.
It's troubling for me.
Fernand
Click to expand...

I've only seen that happen when I did a clean install over an existing
install.

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP, IE/OE
Please respond in Newsgroup only. Do not send email
http://www.fjsmjs.com
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http://defendingyourmachine.blogspot.com/
 
Could it be that it happended when I installed SP2?
Click to expand...

Like Frank, I've seen this occur when XP is reinstalled over itself (a
repair install by comparison does not do this). Installing SP2 should not
create new folders for existing accounts either.

Another scenario: If an XP computer connects to a domain, duplicate folders
for a user are created. The suffix (.xxxxx) after the user name is added to
the domain accounts that are stored on the local system.

If this is a local machine that never connects to a domain, XP was
reinstalled somewhere down the line. The folders with the most recent date
should be the "working" folders for any one account. Checking with
%userprofile% will only work for accounts that you can log on to. It will
not work for the machine accounts.
 
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