Personal User Shell Folders

Brink · Sep 13, 2007

Updated to include more details.

Shawn

b0tch89 · Jan 30, 2008

Hi Shawn,
I accidentally deleted my "My Music" shell folder, (consequently iTunes won't work) and i obviously no longer have the special blueish icon. However, under my user folder with all the other shell folders listed it has "Music" but it is just a shortcut to nothing.

I tried following your steps but can not view the hidden file you packaged in in the download. I also don't know if this will fix the problem as I currently don't have a "Music" shell folder. Are there different steps to recreating this folder, different to this thread which seems more like a repair of a shell folder?

Thanks in advance, I can provide screen shots if it'd help, and i'm a little concerned that I can't view the hidden file, even though I'm following your steps exactly.

Henry

Brink · Jan 30, 2008

Hi Henry,

Welcome to Vista Forums. :party:

In STEP TWO step 1, did you make sure that you changed both items on Folder Options? You will not see the hidden protected system file in the download unless you did. If you did, then try pressing F5 to refresh the screen to see if that reveals them.

I would like to see if replacing the Desktop.ini file will solve your problem before we proceed to a more involved solution.

Shawn

b0tch89 · Jan 30, 2008

Okay, I got the hidden items to work and placed it in the music folder etc and followed the rest of your steps. Upon restart, the arbitrary folder that i created called Music, now had the special blue icon, so i was happy, but it still isn't the same as the original Music folder. However, in my shell Henry, where the list of shell folders is (documents, music etc) there is an empty shortcut with no properties and can't be adjusted. It isn't even a folder, just a shortcut to nothing. This shortcut used to be the Music shell but now it is nothing.

Brink · Jan 30, 2008

Ok Henry,

Since you created the new Music folder manually, it will not work. Go ahead and delete it. Do this tutorial instead for a missing personal user folder using the Shell command shell:My Music . If that doesn't bring back the Music folder, then make sure that the path location is correct in the registry locations at the top of this tutorial below.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/107990-personal-user-shell-folders-move-location.html

Shawn

david boylan · May 3, 2008

Hi , i am not the sharpest knife in the draw when it comes to computers so i suspect i am doing something wrong , when i follow your instructions specifically to change my Music Folder back to the blue one it leaves it as the yellow folder but changes my desktop folder to the new music folder with the blue logo when i click it it opens as it should with desktop stuff , and the yellow folder for my music is still the same weird
can you shed any light

Cheers Dave

david boylan · May 3, 2008

Think i have sorted it what i had to do was create a new folder in the same place as the rest don't name , cut and paste the thing from your zip folder into this, then cut and paste in my case the music folder in to the new folder that created a folder with the blue folder and icon then cut and paste it out of there back into the main folder area , it makes sense to me but i did work delete the old folder

Regards Dave

Brink · May 4, 2008

Dave, I'm glad to hear that you got it sorted. Thank you for the feedback.

Shawn

suirauqa · May 12, 2008

Hi! When all on a sudden the Downloads folder on my Vista Home Premium machine vanished to be replaced by a non-functional icon, I was worried. I could still access the folder through C:\Users\owner\downloads, but could not access it in Explorer from the cute icons. I did not expect to find a solution... Therefore, imagine my surprise and joy, when a Google search brought me to this website and the "Shell:downloads" command instantly brought back the folder to its original place. Thank you very much.

I still don't understand though, why it happened in the first place!!

Brink · May 12, 2008

Your welcome Suirauqa, and welcome to Vista Forums.

It could be from anything like a accidental deletion, dragging it into another folder, registry entry for it's location got changed somehow, etc.....

Shawn

jimmer555 · May 29, 2008

hi,
i have tried this and it goes fine until the cmd and i get 'parameter format not correct'.
i have typed the info in correctly.
this relates to the vieo folder.
ta.

Brink · May 29, 2008

Hi Jimmer,

Welcome to Vista Forums. :party:

Did you use the attrib +r %USERPROFILE%\Videos command?

If so, try restarting the computer and try the command again.

If the folder is still not back to normal, then verify that the folder location is set to the default location in Method Two in this tutorial.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/107990-personal-user-shell-folders-move-location.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

jimmer555 · May 30, 2008

shawn,
thanks very much, that seems to have done the trick.
a nice shiny video folder.
cheers.
james

Brink · May 30, 2008

Your welcome James. I'm glad to hear that you got is fixed now.

Shawn

Flexo · Jun 5, 2008

Hi, I have a similar problem to this, but it has effected my "User" folder, instead of all the other folders covered in this. Can anyone help me? Thanks. Here's a picture to show you what I mean:

Brink · Jun 5, 2008

Hi Flexo,

Welcome to Vista Forums.

See if typing the shell command shell:UsersFilesFolder in the Start menu Search line will restore it for you. For more on this, see:

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/91188-shell-command.html

If not, use the attrib command attrib +r %USERPROFILE% in step 10 under STEP TWO in the tutorial on this page.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Harry230 · Jun 6, 2008

Hi, first post and as per suiraqa above this is a great forum as I too had problems with file relocations and icons.

I still have a problem with Documents if I relocate it to a hd partition. When I do this I just get a hd icon and can't change it back, also any programs with links that were in the documents folder can't redirect. Now if I redirect to a folder (for instance named data on the partition, say d:\ everything works ok.

Can you help with this as I would prefer to relocate to partitions on hd's. Interestingly I tried this for videos and it worked.

Sooo what is so different about the documents folder and redirection?

Any help appreciated.

regards,

Harry

Brink · Jun 6, 2008

Hi Harry,

The Documents folder can be a bit more tricky since a lot of programs, like Windows Live Messenger, may use it to place a folder in it. You will need to make sure that you change where the program places it's folder from it's settings before you can relocate the Documents folder. If the program does not have a setting to allow you to change where it places it's folder, then you cannot relocate Documents without getting a second yellow Documents folder. The only option then is to uninstall the program or leave Documents at it's default location.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/107990-personal-user-shell-folders-move-location.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Harry230 · Jun 6, 2008

Thanks Shawn, it sort of does help but.....

Why does a hd icon appear if a personal folder is relocated to a partition, Vista Help states they can be relocated to a partition or another folder. Seems to work ok when relocated to a folder but NOT a partition. Also many difficulties changing it back to default site location, I had to use SYSTEM RESTORE to get it back - keep getting a message that it could not rebuild file locations, and another, the file already exists but I couldn't see it. Is Vista 64 is a bit buggy in this regard, does the 32 bit version work any differently?

I would prefer to relocate documents, music etc to partitions on hd's as imo easier to manage but not useful if personal folder icons can't be retained. I guess my worst case is to just create folders in my drive partitions and redirect the personal folders to them, that seems to work ok, even other program links (utilising documents) seem to understand this as well.

Vista seems to offer quite a lot of new advantages but also more frustrations.

Thanks for you help and great reference site you guys have.

regards,

Harry

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