'My Documents' link always gets invalidated.
I'm running Windows XP Pro XP3
and I'm having an issue where My 'My Documents' link is changed by some program to 'H:\My Documents'.
I can resolve this fine however, it always gets invalidated when I logoff/logon and restart.
Has anybody encountered this and is there a way to know which application does this change or is this some virus?
Re: 'My Documents' link always gets invalidated.
Check msconfig and the registry to see if there is a script (wsf... bat... vbs) that's running, have a look at the code inside to see if it's changing it on startup.
Re: 'My Documents' link always gets invalidated.
Hi Ocean
Check this key for me...
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders\Personal
Where is it leading to???
Also It seems like your pc is using roaming profiles. Check this for me....
Under control panel, system, advanced, user profiles does it say they are local profiles or roaming profiles? If it says roaming, delete the profile off the server first then delete the local profile for the user. Have them log on again and it will rebuild their profile, hopefully as a local profile. (Caution: Save the users documents someplace else before you delete all copies of their profile)
Hope this helps...
Re: 'My Documents' link always gets invalidated.
how are you fixing it? my documents is one of the folders that the location is automatically tracked if you move it with a drag-drop.
Re: 'My Documents' link always gets invalidated.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
koolsid
Hi Ocean
Check this key for me...
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders\Personal
Where is it leading to???
Also It seems like your pc is using roaming profiles. Check this for me....
Under control panel, system, advanced, user profiles does it say they are local profiles or roaming profiles? If it says roaming, delete the profile off the server first then delete the local profile for the user. Have them log on again and it will rebuild their profile, hopefully as a local profile. (Caution: Save the users documents someplace else before you delete all copies of their profile)
Hope this helps...
All settings are using Local settings
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\...\Personal is set to c:\documents and settings\..\My documents
Do I need to look at other keys as well?
I couldn't find anything in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Re: 'My Documents' link always gets invalidated.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Lord Orwell
how are you fixing it? my documents is one of the folders that the location is automatically tracked if you move it with a drag-drop.
right click 'my documents' icon and move the link to the correct location.
Re: 'My Documents' link always gets invalidated.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
mendhak
Check msconfig and the registry to see if there is a script (wsf... bat... vbs) that's running, have a look at the code inside to see if it's changing it on startup.
can I do regex searches on the registry?
nothing on msconfig.
edit: guess not.
Re: 'My Documents' link always gets invalidated.
Ok, Navigate to
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell
Folders, value Personal
You will see that the value of Personal is
%USERPROFILE%\My Documents
Seems like your user profile is saved on H: and hence it is navigating back to h:
Simply edit that value and try again now...
Hope this helps...
Re: 'My Documents' link always gets invalidated.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
oceanebelle
right click 'my documents' icon and move the link to the correct location.
windows is funny about these files. I think you have to do an actual drag and drop or it creates a link. Not 100% on that one though.
Re: 'My Documents' link always gets invalidated.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Lord Orwell
windows is funny about these files. I think you have to do an actual drag and drop or it creates a link. Not 100% on that one though.
I think he means right clicking and going to properties (as that allows you to edit the target location that My Documents points to)
Re: 'My Documents' link always gets invalidated.
no i didn't. changing the shortcut doesn't change where windows wants to put it. That's stored in the registry. If you don't do the drag method, it doesn't automatically fix the registry location pointer. Therefore the next time you try to browse my documents from your start menu for example, windows will send you to the old location, creating a new folder where the old one was.
Re: 'My Documents' link always gets invalidated.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Lord Orwell
no i didn't. changing the shortcut doesn't change where windows wants to put it. That's stored in the registry. If you don't do the drag method, it doesn't automatically fix the registry location pointer. Therefore the next time you try to browse my documents from your start menu for example, windows will send you to the old location, creating a new folder where the old one was.
I didnt mean that was what you meant, I was saying it to you.
The My Documents icon is not a shortcut. If you change the target properties of the My Documents icon on your desktop or Start Menu it redirects your My Documents folder to that location no matter how you access it... I do this almost on a weekly basis at work when setting up new PCs etc so it definitely works.
Re: 'My Documents' link always gets invalidated.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
chris128
I didnt mean that was what you meant, I was saying it to you.
The My Documents icon is not a shortcut. If you change the target properties of the My Documents icon on your desktop or Start Menu it redirects your My Documents folder to that location no matter how you access it... I do this almost on a weekly basis at work when setting up new PCs etc so it definitely works.
that's interesting. I will give that a shot myself. I am getting ready to move all my documents onto a common drive due to the number of OSes i have installed.