Inaccessible Folders in Vista ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Upgrader
  • Start date Start date
U

Upgrader

Just poking around in the Vista filing system for the first time,
checking out folders that I'm used to being able to rummage around in
and clean out in Windows XP, and I am finding that a surprising number
of them cannot be accessed at all, even after turning off UAC, and even
though I seem to have permissions for the folders. Many of the folders
in question are marked with the little arrow that (in XP, at least)
indicates a shortcut, but that's not an infallible indication of
inaccessibility, because some of the so-marked folders *are* accessible.
I find this situation of no longer having access to my own Start Menu,
or Cookies, or Favorites, etc. to be a bit perplexing and unnerving.
What gives here?


-----Daze
 
Many such folders in Vista are now protected and cannot be accessed
normally. An example is Microsoft Update, which has access to update the
files in such folders. There are other tools.
 
Colin said:
Many such folders in Vista are now protected and cannot be accessed
normally. An example is Microsoft Update, which has access to update the
files in such folders. There are other tools.
Click to expand...

Since my OP, I have been discovering that the inaccessible folders
marked with a shortcut arrow actually now have their contents in a
folder somewhere else. So, I can generally still access all the files
that I was able to in XP, except now I have to look for them in a
different location.

Is there any way of determining where a folder marked with a shortcut
arrow is functioning as a shortcut to?

--- Daze
 
Properities?

Upgrader said:
Since my OP, I have been discovering that the inaccessible folders marked
with a shortcut arrow actually now have their contents in a folder
somewhere else. So, I can generally still access all the files that I was
able to in XP, except now I have to look for them in a different location.

Is there any way of determining where a folder marked with a shortcut
arrow is functioning as a shortcut to?

--- Daze
Click to expand...
 
Colin said:
Properities?
Click to expand...

Nope. No hint that I can find in "Properties." Perhaps I should mention
that my installation of Vista RC2 is not a clean install, but an upgrade
of my XP Pro.
 
That makes no difference anymore. An update from XP is still a clean
install of Vista. It makes no difference what method you use to install
Vista, it is always comes out as a clean install of the OS. This is a big
change from XP and earlier versions of Windows. The difference now lies in
the retention of the apps. Those can cause issues, however.
 
Do you think the upgrade Vista DVD will allow the use to delete the
partition that contains the legacy OS and then create a new partition to
install Vista on?
 
Colin said:
That makes no difference anymore. An update from XP is still a clean
install of Vista. It makes no difference what method you use to install
Vista, it is always comes out as a clean install of the OS. This is a big
change from XP and earlier versions of Windows. The difference now lies in
the retention of the apps. Those can cause issues, however.
Click to expand...

But isn't it actually the retention of apps from the old XP installation
that results in the creation of these "shortcut" folders labeled
"Documents and Settings," "Cookies," "Application Data," etc etc in
Vista that are inaccessible to the user? I was guessing that they are
created to redirect the former contents of these folders to their proper
locations in Vista. Or are these inaccessible "shortcut" folders even
present in a brand-new installation of Vista on a newly formatted HD?
 
Windows XP Called a folder "My Documents". Vista calls the similar folder
"Documents". It is possible that the contents of your My Documents folder
were not migrated over to the Vista equivalent.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
Hi,
What you are seeing are called junctions. They are indeed shortcuts.
They are not truly folders;just shortcuts to the new places Vista stores
stuff in relation to xp.
Jump over to the Vista file ng, and Jimmy B will be more than happy to
explain them-in depth-he's excellent with this stuff.

Jeff
 
Daze,
You're correct on a couple of points.
The shortcuts you speak of are called junctions, and they are specifically
set up to route stuff from xp's folder locations; to the new ones in vista.
And your assumption of stuff having to be in xp for them to be generated in
Vista is off; not a bad assessment tho; but Vista sets them up default-clean
install or upgrade;they are there.
For the definitive discussion of junctions;jump over to Vista file ng; and
Jimmy B is the guy who knows all about it; definitely a-"Vista MVP"-( for
sure).
There is also a command you can use to see where all the folders are;and
what the juctions point to ; like you asked about. I forget it, but Jimmy B
can hook ya up.

Jeff
 
Jeff:
Thanks for addressing my questions regarding these "junctions." I
greatly appreciate your input, and for further info in this regard, I
will tune into the Vista file ng, as you suggest, and keep my eyes
peeled for Jimmy B ;)

Daze
-------------------
 
Programs written for XP were suggested to put things into Documents and
Settings %user% etc. and for these programs to properly put the data into
the new USER folder, it is necessary for the 'junctions' to redirect to the
new folder. Otherwise, most of the programs would set up a new folder and
the data would become harder to locate.
 
yup

John Barnes said:
Programs written for XP were suggested to put things into Documents and
Settings %user% etc. and for these programs to properly put the data into
the new USER folder, it is necessary for the 'junctions' to redirect to
the new folder. Otherwise, most of the programs would set up a new folder
and the data would become harder to locate.
Click to expand...
 
Hello,

You can identify the junctions from the command prompt. If you issue a "dir
/al" command, it will list the junctions and show where they point to in
brackets.

The reason they are security-restricted, even to administrators, is for
application compatabity reasons (yes, that's correct, an application
compatability hack has an application compatability hack :)

Many programs mistake junctions for normal folders. These programs would get
mighty confused if they were accessing the same files thru multiple folders
(i.e. the users folder and documents and settings junction would appear to
the program to contain copies of the same files, but in actuality, they both
contain the same files).

Also, there are some instances where a junction points back on itself
creating a hall-of-mirrors, which would really confuse some programs.
 
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