Directory and file organization

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ian Hoare
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Ian Hoare

Salut/Hi "Colin Barnhorst" <colinbarharst(nojunk)@msn.com>,

le/on Sun, 23 Jan 2005 22:24:48 -0700, tu disais/you said:-
It is not that there are duplicate files, but that there are several views
of the same files. The best books are Microsoft's Windows XP Inside and Out
and Mark Minasi's Mastering Windows XP Professional (perfectly valid for XP
Home as well).
Click to expand...

Are you sure about this, Colin?

I use a pretty simple (quasi dos) file management program called Ztree -
which I recommend wholeheartedly, by the way.

Using this, I can scan my entire disk structure, and then show all files in
single view, I can also get it to display all file attributes.

So using Ztree, I look at my structure and see - to take one example
entirely at random "cb.exe". I see it with identical size and date in two
places. C:\Program Files\NetMeeting and c:\system32\dllcache

what would happen if I were to rename this file in one of these two places?
Would the name change in both references? What if I were to move one copy
(say from system32\dllcache\) to d:\temp temporarily?

I'm tempted to try.
 
Salut/Hi David Candy,

le/on Tue, 25 Jan 2005 02:20:43 +1100, tu disais/you said:-
One is windows file protection of files to replace when you screw up. It is also nothing to do with what we are talking about here.
Click to expand...

Which? Are you talking about the OP's directories, or my example?

BTW. I think it is or I wouldn't have made the comment.
 
In Dos days I could keep track of where things were by looking at the
directory tree.
Now with XP, and all of its users (3 on mine) I have "my documents" and "my
documents and settings" with dulplicate files all over the tree. Is there a
good book or web site to explain what this OS is doing?
thanks.
 
It is not that there are duplicate files, but that there are several views
of the same files. The best books are Microsoft's Windows XP Inside and Out
and Mark Minasi's Mastering Windows XP Professional (perfectly valid for XP
Home as well).
 
XP is a multi-user OS, it creates user folders for each
account and they are protected from access by other accounts
that do not have administrator rights.

Windows Help under subjects for accounts and users will
help. The Windows XP InsideOut is a good book.


--
The people think the Constitution protects their rights;
But government sees it as an obstacle to be overcome.


| In Dos days I could keep track of where things were by
looking at the
| directory tree.
| Now with XP, and all of its users (3 on mine) I have "my
documents" and "my
| documents and settings" with dulplicate files all over the
tree. Is there a
| good book or web site to explain what this OS is doing?
| thanks.
|
| --
| oldtimer
 
In Dos days I could keep track of where things were by looking at the
directory tree.
Now with XP, and all of its users (3 on mine) I have "my documents" and "my
documents and settings" with dulplicate files all over the tree. Is there a
good book or web site to explain what this OS is doing?
thanks.
Click to expand...

Use Explorer in the two pane view to get a visual representation of the
tree. If it helps, ignore namespace items like My Computer, Desktop, My
Documents and so on. Most of these "extras" lead to folders within the main
directory structure.

Instead, concentrate on the listings per drive. These are still not an
exact tree like you had in DOS but are close enough that you should be able
to find your way around.

If you do not have a Folders button in Explorer's standard toolbar, add
one. Right click on the toolbar. If the Lock menu is active, unlock. Then
use the Customize option to add the Folders button. Clicking this button
will toggle between folder view (one pane) and explorer view (two panes).
It's up to you if you want to once again lock the toolbars when you're done
with the customizing.
 
One is windows file protection of files to replace when you screw up. It is also nothing to do with what we are talking about here.
 
The same file can be displayed in more than one place. On a network a user
can have a virtual drive that organizes the files he has permissions for.
These files are not located on any one physical drive in the way displayed
and they are not duplicated for the user's directory. Also, several users
on your XP machine can see and use Office but only one copy of Office is
installed.
 
In
gumshu said:
In Dos days I could keep track of where things were by looking
at the
directory tree.
Now with XP, and all of its users (3 on mine) I have "my
documents"
and "my documents and settings" with dulplicate files all over
the
tree. Is there a good book or web site to explain what this OS
is
doing?
Click to expand...


No, there areally are no duplicate files in the sense you mean.
The folders you're talking about are called "namespaces," and are
just pointers to the actual files themselves.
 
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