Documents & Settings vs. Users folders

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mike in Nebraska
  • Start date Start date
M

Mike in Nebraska

OS: Vista Business; upgraded from Win XP Pro SP3. Joined to a WinSer 2003
domain.

I just noticed that I have (near) identical files and folders in my
C:\Documents and Settings folder and the C:\Users folder. Is this because
it was an upgrade? Is there a way to eliminate one of them to free up some
HD space?
 
OS: Vista Business; upgraded from Win XP Pro SP3. Joined to a WinSer 2003
domain.

I just noticed that I have (near) identical files and folders in my
C:\Documents and Settings folder and the C:\Users folder. Is this because
it was an upgrade? Is there a way to eliminate one of them to free up some
HD space?
Click to expand...

C:\Documents and Settings folder is probably just junction
or directory symlink to Users folder.( for compatibility reason ).
there is more such redirections in Vista.

Practically, they are just 2 pointers to the same folder.
Whatever you change in C:\Documents and Settings,
will be changed in C:\users and vice verse.

Similarly, vista uses also plenty of file hardlinks
( didferent pathnames to the same file )
E.g. Many files in system32 ( or syswow64 ) folder
are just hardlinks to huge winsxs folder.
 
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