VS Studio "Inventing" Odd Filepaths

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dad
  • Start date Start date
D

Dad

Hi,

VS is generating some odd filepaths of the form

%USERPROFILE%\Downloads\Documents\Downloads\Documents\Downloads\Documents\...

for settings files, source directory, macro files, and so on. I don't know
where they come from. I have never used filepaths remotely like this. I have
reset filepaths in Tools/Import-Export and corrected filepaths in Tools/Options.
After a few days, the filepaths get replaced again. The registry shows many
files like the above.

Further, about once a week, at startup and exit it complains that the filepath

C:\..path..\C:\..another path..\...\settings

cannot be accessed. Note the double inclusion of "C"

I removed and reinstalled VS without curing the problem.

Can someone suggest a solution? I posted this in the ..vstudio.general but
didn't get a response.

Thanks,
Gary
 
Hi,

VS is generating some odd filepaths of the form

    %USERPROFILE%\Downloads\Documents\Downloads\Documents\Downloads\Documents\. ..

for settings files, source directory, macro files, and so on.  I don't know
where they come from.  I have never used filepaths remotely like this.  I have
reset filepaths in Tools/Import-Export and corrected filepaths in Tools/Options.
After a few days, the filepaths get replaced again.  The registry showsmany
files like the above.
Click to expand...

Open command prompt and execute "echo %USERPROFILE%". You'll see what
it actually means then.
Further, about once a week, at startup and exit it complains that the filepath

    C:\..path..\C:\..another path..\...\settings

cannot be accessed.  Note the double inclusion of "C"
Click to expand...

At that point I would ask you to post the result of the exercise above
here. It may be that your environment variables are messed up (though
I'm pretty sure that it's the OS itself that's responsible for
USERPROFILE to be correct).
 
Open command prompt and execute "echo %USERPROFILE%". You'll see what
it actually means then.
Click to expand...
At that point I would ask you to post the result of the exercise above
here. It may be that your environment variables are messed up (though
I'm pretty sure that it's the OS itself that's responsible for
USERPROFILE to be correct).
Click to expand...

echo %USERPROFILE% yields an empty string.

IIRC NT4 listed such paths somewhere in Control Panel / System. I don't see
them here in VISTA.

Gary
 
Dad said:
echo %USERPROFILE% yields an empty string.

IIRC NT4 listed such paths somewhere in Control Panel / System. I don't see
them here in VISTA.

Gary
Click to expand...

On my desktop echo %USERPROFILE% also yields an empty string. The desktop is
XP, the problem installation has Vista.

Gary
 
echo %USERPROFILE% yields an empty string.

IIRC NT4 listed such paths somewhere in Control Panel / System.  I don't see
them here in VISTA.
Click to expand...

This is extremely strange, and points to a broken OS installation.
This variable should be set by the OS every time you long in; you can
change it manually with "set USERPROFILE=", but it should come back
once you relog. It is also something that was there pretty much since
the first version of NT, and it is still there in Win7. If you Google
for "USERPROFILE environment variable", you'll see plenty of mentions
and explanations.

Another possibility is that you have some application (malware?) run
on startup that resets that variable, or tries to set it incorrectly
and resets it by accident.

I wonder also, what about other stuff there? Try these on Vista:

echo %AllUsersProfile%
echo %AppData%
echo %LocalAppData%
echo %UserName%
echo %SystemRoot%

if all those also print empty strings when run in command prompt, then
you definitely have a problem.
 
My error!

echo %USERPROFILE%

yields

C:\Users\dad

Sorry. I was up half the night watching F1 qualifying from Australia. I was
confusing the response with the prompt.

Gary
 
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