Folder Shortcuts denied

  • Thread starter Thread starter Greg
  • Start date Start date
G

Greg

Setup: laptop with Vista, mini-tower with XP. Tower connected to internet.
Laptop networked to desk machine with crossover cable.

Problem. For no apparent reason, suddenly on the Vista machine I get not
available, access denied messages when trying to use the system generated
shorcuts in the folders, even though I only had one non-password protected
user who is the administrator.

I can access the shortcuts that are on the laptop's desktop okay, it's just
the shorcuts that are in the folders. Nothing I do changes this - I can't
change the shared settings (including advanced sharing) for the folders, it
has no effect.

Greg
 
Greg said:
Setup: laptop with Vista, mini-tower with XP. Tower connected to internet.
Laptop networked to desk machine with crossover cable.

Problem. For no apparent reason, suddenly on the Vista machine I get not
available, access denied messages when trying to use the system generated
shorcuts in the folders, even though I only had one non-password protected
user who is the administrator.

I can access the shortcuts that are on the laptop's desktop okay, it's just
the shorcuts that are in the folders. Nothing I do changes this - I can't
change the shared settings (including advanced sharing) for the folders, it
has no effect.

Greg
Click to expand...

Hello,

I can't tell from your post how you are having the problem.

- On what computer are the shortcuts location?
- On what computer are you accessing the shortcuts from?
- Can you give some specific examples of which shortcuts you cannot access?
 
- On what computer are the shortcuts location?
- On what computer are you accessing the shortcuts from?
Click to expand...

The laptop, to places on the laptop - sorry shouldn't have confused you by
mentioning the network - it may not be a network problem (though I have
plenty of those as well)
- Can you give some specific examples of which shortcuts you cannot
access?
Click to expand...

Almost anything beginning with "My" - MyDocuments, MyMusic, MyVideos,
MyPictures, etc plus others such as StartMenu, Printhood, and most shortcuts
that have the little curved arrow thing on the icon. But strangely enough
some still work, including "Recent"

Like I said, it's only the "pretend" ones that aren't pointing to something
that is really in that folder that don't work, and the ones on the desktop
still do work

G
 
Those locations no longer exist in Windows Vista. They have been
replaced by a new folder location.

While they look like shortcuts, they are actually what is known as a
junction. Their only purpose is to allow legacy applications to work in
certain scenarios and certain upgrade-from-XP scenarios to work.

Applications (and thusly you, as the user) are prevented from listing
the contents of these junctions as if they were a folder to prevent
applications from misbehaving (seeing the same data in multiple
locations would probably freak most applications out).

You can see where these junctions are pointing to using the command
prompt by issuing a 'dir /al' command.

For example, the "My..." entities have had the "My" prefix removed and
have been moved up one level in the folder hierarchy right inside your
user profile folder.
 
It's not an XP upgrade it came new with the new computer (Version 6.0 Build
6000). And the shortcuts used to work and now don't. Why are they there at
all if those locations no longer exist in Windows Vista. That doesn't make
any sense. Has one of these mysterious automatic download upgrades changed
something? Is that the cause of this? Do I just delete them and forget about
them?
 
Greg said:
It's not an XP upgrade it came new with the new computer (Version 6.0
Build 6000). And the shortcuts used to work and now don't. Why are they
there at all if those locations no longer exist in Windows Vista. That
doesn't make any sense. Has one of these mysterious automatic download
upgrades changed something? Is that the cause of this? Do I just delete
them and forget about them?
Click to expand...

They are there for application compatibility. They are installed with
Windows Vista, and are only visible if you have changed your preferences
to see hidden OS files. I would not suggest deleting them, just forget
about them.
 
Thanks for that. Yes I like to see hidden files. Still doesn't explain why
they worked at first and then didn't. This is the kind of half-baked untidy
solution that really annoys Windows users, especially if it is not
documented or explained anywhere. I guess they figure that most people never
look at hidden folders and shortcuts. I will ignore them as you say, since
something terrible will no doubt ensue if I clean them off. Thanks again.
 
Greg said:
Thanks for that. Yes I like to see hidden files. Still doesn't explain
why they worked at first and then didn't. This is the kind of half-baked
untidy solution that really annoys Windows users, especially if it is
not documented or explained anywhere. I guess they figure that most
people never look at hidden folders and shortcuts. I will ignore them as
you say, since something terrible will no doubt ensue if I clean them
off. Thanks again.
Click to expand...

I agree that they certainly did not make it obvious that these are not
real folders, and this will spook most power users and administrators. I
tried very hard to get them to do something about it before RTM, but
they wouldn't.

- JB
 
Back
Top