What are .COMPUTER folders?

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Guest

Hi

Followig restoration of back-up files my machine has generated two
'.COMPUTER' folders (with the dot and in BLOCK letters but wihtout the
apostrophes e.g. Suzanne.COMPUTER). These are located in the 'Documents and
Settings' folder on the main hard drive. They appear to be copies of two of
the five original, individually named 'my documents' folders (e.g. Suzanne's
Documents). For some reason only two such folders were generated and they are
now the default 'my documets' folders for two family members. I can copy the
contents into the original my documents folders for these people and I can
delete the .COMPUTER folders but they regenerate on re-booting the computer
and they 'insist' on being the default folders!

What are they and how do I get rid of them?

I am using XP with SP2 and all windows updates.

Many thanks for your help.
Martin
 
Martin said:
Followig restoration of back-up files my machine has generated two
'.COMPUTER' folders (with the dot and in BLOCK letters but wihtout
the apostrophes e.g. Suzanne.COMPUTER). These are located in the
'Documents and Settings' folder on the main hard drive. They appear
to be copies of two of the five original, individually named 'my
documents' folders (e.g. Suzanne's Documents). For some reason only
two such folders were generated and they are now the default 'my
documets' folders for two family members. I can copy the contents
into the original my documents folders for these people and I can
delete the .COMPUTER folders but they regenerate on re-booting the
computer and they 'insist' on being the default folders!

What are they and how do I get rid of them?

I am using XP with SP2 and all windows updates.
Click to expand...

Depending on the situation - they are either your current profile folders or
your old profile folders.

Test out which by logging in as each user and doing the following:

Start button --> RUN --> cmd /k echo %userprofile% --> ok.

That should bring up a command prompt window echoing the current users
profile directory path.
 
Hello Shenan

Thank you. I followed your advice and I get an error message saying 'windows
cannot find cmd/kechoC:\documents...' for both profiles. I'm not sure what
this means in the context of my problem. Also, do you know how to delete
these .COMPUTER folders permanently?

Many thanks
Martin
 
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