Newbie needs help desperately....

[Terri]

Start/My Documents open to link instead of menus but I now notice that the
folder inside My Docs is a SHORTCUT and I think that is why they will not
open as a menu. How do I repair this?
See 5/2 9:51 a.m. message for more details if needed
Thanks!

 

[VanguardLH]

Start/My Documents open to link instead of menus but I now notice that the
folder inside My Docs is a SHORTCUT

My Documents is itself a folder. So to where points this shortcut
within this folder? What is the name of the shortcut?

and I think that is why they will not
open as a menu. How do I repair this?

Where do you end up if you enter "%userprofile%\My Documents" (sans
quotes) into the address bar of Windows Explorer? What types of objects
do you see in that folder?

 

[Terri]

I get the folder My Documents - it does not say C or anything in front of
it...in the folder are all the folders in My Documents (but they are all
PALE YELLOW) and 1 shortcut folder to MyDocuments and 1 shortcut folder to
My Sharing Folders.

 

[VanguardLH]

...

I get the folder My Documents - it does not say C or anything in front
of it...

It isn't supposed to have a drive letter. The "My Documents" folder is
a reference in the registry that can point to a path on any drive.

in the folder are all the folders in My Documents (but they are all
PALE YELLOW) and 1 shortcut folder to MyDocuments and 1 shortcut
folder to My Sharing Folders.

Where does the MyDocuments shortcut take you? My guess is that you
moved the path for the "My Documents" reference so all your docs are on
some other drive.

 

[Twayne]

It isn't supposed to have a drive letter. The "My Documents" folder
is a reference in the registry that can point to a path on any drive.


Where does the MyDocuments shortcut take you? My guess is that you
moved the path for the "My Documents" reference so all your docs are
on some other drive.

And if it was done incorrectly, as in by not using the "Move" feature in
the My Documents Properties, it's going to have created sort of a mess.
You can not copy/move the My Documdnts folder with Explorer; it's a
System Folder.

 

[VanguardLH]

And if it was done incorrectly, as in by not using the "Move" feature
in the My Documents Properties, it's going to have created sort of a
mess. You can not copy/move the My Documdnts folder with Explorer;
it's a System Folder.

As I recall, the destinations of those folders is recorded in a
registry key used to record the configuration of your profile (for your
Windows account). You need to specify there the path to wherever you
want your special folder(s). TweakUI makes moving these special
folders a bit easier but it can be done in the registry (after using
something like Windows Explorer to move the file).

 

[Twayne]

As I recall, the destinations of those folders is recorded in a
registry key used to record the configuration of your profile (for
your Windows account). You need to specify there the path to
wherever you want your special folder(s). TweakUI makes moving these
special folders a bit easier but it can be done in the registry
(after using something like Windows Explorer to move the file).

True. But that said, what I would do is simply open My Documents,
regardless of what's in it (or not), click the Move button, and set
where I want it to be there (which I've done several times).
Right click My Document, General Tab, click Move; follow instructions.
Then registry etc. is all taken care of automatically.

After that if files/folders were not IN that folder, go find them,
and copy them into it. If any other folders were created with a name
like mydocuments, delete those folders after getting the files out of
them to eliminate confusion later on when they show up in Explorer
windows. There can only be one "My Documents" folder and it is a system
folder, thus the move method above is necessary and the best way to move
it.
Moving My Documents away from the boot drive is a good idea,
especially from a backup point of view. AFAIK Documents and Settings is
not movable should it occur to you.

HTH