Windows 7 My user folder is invisible

[Kevryl]

Hello all,

Somewhere there HAS to be a Windows 7 discussion group, but it doesn't seem
to be listed anywhere in the Microsoft discussion groups tree. Someone in
here may be able to help or at least point me to a Win 7 discussion group.

I have just bought 2 identical machines with Win 7 installed. My user
account is there on both (libraries documents right click properties)
immediately under c:\users, but when I go to c: drive, I find only public and
default, and when invited to "search in sub-folders" an unintelligibnle
mish-mash of files and folders appear, and still my own user folder is not
visible (even after playing with the alphabetical selection down arrow). I
have gone into folder options/view and selected "show hidden folders, files
and drives" and even unticked "hide unprotected operating system files". My
user account still wont appear so I can get into it and copy my "outlook.pst"
file from the old machine into its rightful place on the new ones.

If anyone can help me with this issue, and how to get from this mish-mash of
flattened out fiolders and files into a real directory structure I'd be most
appreciative!

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Hello all,

Somewhere there HAS to be a Windows 7 discussion group, but it doesn't seem
to be listed anywhere in the Microsoft discussion groups tree. Someone in
here may be able to help or at least point me to a Win 7 discussion group.

Unfortunately it's highly unlikely that there will be any Microsoft
Windows 7 newsgroups. Apparently Microsoft has decided that web-based
forums are better than newsgroups and they are putting their efforts
there. I'm personally sorry that's the case, but it's their decision,
not mine. Go to
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/default.aspx?tab=2

However there is at least one non-Microsoft Windows 7 newsgroup:
alt.windows7.general. Not all servers carry it (at least not yet), but
here's one free news server that does: aioe.org

 

[Kevryl]

No, there are no users listed there, thanks Jeff.

 

[Kevryl]

Thank you Ken. Maybe it gives them better ability to moderate the oposts?

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Thank you Ken.

You're welcome.

Maybe it gives them better ability to moderate the oposts?

I think that's at least in part their view. However it wasn't the only
solution to that problem, nor even the best one, as I'm concerned.

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Kevryl.

As Ken explained, MS has decided that there will be NO Win7 newsgroups - and
I'm as disappointed as Ken about this. :>(

As to your C:\Users\Kevryl folder tree...

immediately under c:\users, but when I go to c: drive, I find only public
and
default,

Is this in Windows Explorer? What IS your username? Might it possibly
include "illegal" characters? It should not, of course, because Windows
should not let you create such a username in the first place, but strange
things happen sometimes.

In an elevated Command Prompt window, you should be able to use the Dir
command, held over from MS-DOS days when "folders" were Directories. (As
with any command here, just type Dir /? to see a mini-Help file listing the
switches and parameters available with this command.) Start with your
username:
Dir C:\kevryl /s/a

The /s and /a switches search all subfolders and list all files, even those
with Hidden, System or other attributes. If a file or folder named "kevryl"
is anywhere in Drive C: it should show up and you can read the full
pathname. (You could also search for "outlook.pst", of course.)

If that doesn't work, post back with details about what you did - step by
step - and what result you saw - verbatim; please don't paraphrase any error
message that might appear. Several other techniques are available to
fine-tune Dir searches.

I'm assuming of course that you are an Administrator and logged in as such.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8089.0726) in Win7 Ultimate x64

 

[Kevryl]

Thanks, R.C. for the useful info. Yes, I well remember when "folders" were
"directories", and when you could read the whole "config.sys" file while
between taking sips of coffee! oh, and do you remember (fondly) those real,
hard-copy manuals, keyboard templates and quick-reference flip-cards that
came with software like Lotus 1-2-3 and Enable? And I wonder why mass-file
handling and filtering capabilities of programmes like Borland's X-tree were
never incorporated by Microsoft into their limited "Explorer" windows? Once
the extended filenames came into being it seemed to me that trying to find
anything, guessing characters that would be substututed and appended after
the first 6 (was it?) made using DOS directory commnds rather impractical.
However I'll keep your info as a reference and look back into it. Anyway,
back to the present:

I stumbled on a "fix" for the problem of finding my user folder (though I
can't find how I did it now,. In the User tree where "default" was listed, I
think I right-clicked the default folder name. Whatever I did there was the
option to "move down one position" (or very similar wording). I did that and
all the folders, including my own magically appeared! Go figure! As I'm
looking for where I found that (its not under the right-click menu any
longer) the "search sub-directories" that I kept getting when my folder was
invisible is also not to be found. The nuances of Windows 7 are quite
puzzling to me at this early stage. :-|

Cheers, Kevryl.

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Kevryl.

Ah, memories! Some fun, some not. ;^}

Even in Win7, I often find that Dir /s in an elevated "DOS" window is still
much faster and more effective than pressing Start and typing in what I'm
looking for - but not always. Often, Search is so fast it's amazing; it
sometimes finds what I want before I can finish typing the search word.

But some things the GUI simply can't do. For example, the Dir /x command
will reveal the 8.3 Short File Name for any Long File Name. VERY handy for
when the LFN includes a space or other illegal character. Or when the LFN
is just too long to qualify as an SFN. Dir /x shows the SFNs in a column
before the LFNs, but only for each LFN that does not also qualify as an SFN.

I stumbled on a "fix" for the problem of finding my user folder (though I
can't find how I did it now,.

I don't know how you did it either, but don't argue with success. ;<)

Like each other step up the learning curve, it will take a few days to get
comfy with Win7; after that, only a few users choose to go back to their
earlier system. I recall how angry and irritated my then-8-year-old son was
in 1978 when TRS-80's Level II BASIC replaced the simple, tiny 4 KB Level I
BASIC. ("What's a Syntax Error? Why can't it just say 'WHAT?' like it did
before?")

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8089.0726) in Win7 Ultimate x64

 

[Kevryl]

Ah, "Dir /x" - THAT'S the secret! Thanks I shall note that one.

8 years old eh? Yes I too recall the frustrations of "syntax error", as if
the system new what one was doing but, like a teacher was bloody-mindedly
impressing a point! LOL. I guess now, at 40 odd he probably runs rings around
both of us?

Cheers, have a great day.
Kevryl
PS: I keep ticking "notify me of replies", but it never does. :-(

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Kevryl.

Yes, my 40-year-old son is now a database programmer for the University of
Texas. I'm still better at solving PC problems, but he speaks languages
(like SQL and .NET and SharePoint) that I can't even read in MSDN Magazine.

Ah, "Dir /x" - THAT'S the secret! Thanks I shall note that one.

One of my favorites, although it's not needed very often.

PS: I keep ticking "notify me of replies", but it never does. :-(

I never see that option because I never use "Communities" or "discussion
groups" to read newsgroups. I've always used a newsreader, going back to
Outlook Express and earlier. Now I use Windows Live Mail; in case your PC
vendor did not bundle it with Win7, it is available free at
http://download.live.com, along with all the other Windows Live Essentials
(Live Messenger, Live Photo Gallery, etc.).

Just click here:
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.windows.vista.file_management

That one click should fire up your default newsreader, connect you to the MS
public news server (which is free and does not require you to log on) and to
this newsgroup, where you can read all the same messages as in the
discussion group, but in a newsgroup format, rather than the web-based
browser interface. Try it and see if you like it better.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8089.0726) in Win7 Ultimate x64

 

[~hp-hdx~]

I can't help with the folder issue, but I just did what you want to do with
a .pst file for outlook 2007 in a new Vista Home Premium box. I copied the
pst file from my old XP machine to a USB flash drive, and then plugged that
into the Vista maching. Then in outlook on the new box I used it's import
function and pointed it to the USB key.
HAL

 

[Kevryl]

I've never used newsgroups, but I'd like to try that. However the link is
dead, so I copied/pasted into my browser but it didn't do anything.

I use Outlook 2002 (which i think I need to retire with Windows 7 in favour
of Outlook 2007), not Outlook Express.

Thanks

 

[Kevryl]

Hi Hal,

I did bring the .pst file across and put it in the Outlook directory.
Outlook found it OK, but still says it can't find som of the mailbox folders.
Calendar, Tasks, In and Out boxes and some other mailboxes are OK, as is my
Contacts folder. Even view settings are mostly intact, but some mailboxes
can't be accessed. Remember too I'm on Windows 7

Thanks.

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Kevryl.

Methinks I assumed too much. :^{

I've been using Usenet, newsreaders and newsgroups so long that I forget
that not everybody does - even among computer veterans.

Outlook Express is as different from Outlook as OS X is from Windows. Well,
almost - despite Microsoft's distressing penchant for giving confusingly
similar names to quite different programs. :>( Both OL and OE handle
email, especially the POP and SMTP protocols. But OE also handles NNTP
(Network News Transfer Protocol), on which the worldwide Usenet is based:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet
http://www.usenet.org/

In short, Usenet is kind of like the bulletin board systems of a couple of
decades ago. One user posts a question; many others read the question;
somebody posts the answer; the OP (original poster) says Thank You - and
while waiting for the answer, answers another question from a different
poster...and so on. Everybody benefits from everybody else. Learn today,
teach tomorrow. ;<)

Since at least Win95, each Windows version has always included a newsreader;
it was always OE until Vista switched to Windows Mail. Windows 7 is the
first Windows version that does not have a newsreader application built in.
For Win7, MS offers the free Windows Live Mail (note the "Live" in the
name - and see my earlier comment about Microsoft's naming practices), which
will also run on WinXP and Vista.

I've never used newsgroups, but I'd like to try that. However the link is
dead, so I copied/pasted into my browser but it didn't do anything.

The link I gave you before, the one that starts with "will not
work if you don't have WLM or another newsreader installed. It uses the
NNTP (protocol, rather than the Internet's Hypertext Transfer
Protocol (http://) to access the news servers and their content. You've
accessed the same newsgroup content in your browser (Internet Explorer), but
you are seeing it in the web-based interface, rather than the newsreader
format. Same messages, different appearance and different methods of
reading and responding. You are using IE; I'm using WLM; we both see the
same content.

Since Windows always included a newsreader before, and since many vendors
now bundle WLM when they sell Win7, I often forget that some Win7 users
don't have a newsreader - so that link won't work for them until they've
installed WLM or a third-party newsreader.

Microsoft is trying to convert us all from newsgroups to Forums (also known
as Communities or Discussion Groups). Many MVPs (including myself) and
others feel that newsgroups are a much better way to get and give help, so
we are vigorously resisting the change. We may be doomed to failure, but we
are trying hard to preserve what we feel is a better system. As I said in
my previous post, you can download WLM (from http://download.live.com ),
then try it and see for yourself.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8089.0726) in Win7 Ultimate x64

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I've never used newsgroups,

Just a clarification for you here. You say you've "never used
newsgroups," but in fact you are using one at this moment. You think
you're on a web-based forum, actually you are just using the web-based
interface to this newsgroup,
microsoft.public.windows.vista.file_management.

Using the awful web interface to participate in this newsgroup is the
slowest, clunkiest, most error-prone method of using the newsgroups
there is. Do yourself a favor and switch to a newsreader, such as
Outlook Express, which comes with Windows XP, or Windows Mail, which
comes with Vista. See
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm