Fix name of My Documents under several user accounts

[caribouuu]

My Computer is set to display as a menu on the Start menu. The administrator account shows the My Documents folders for the two users as My Documents and [User]'s Documents. However, the user account shows the My Documents folders as My Documents and My Documents. How can I get the user account to show the two folders as My Documents and [Administrator]'s Documents? P.S: The names show correctly in the My Computer window, just not in the Start menu menu, and probably not in the explorer address bar, either, although I forgot to check that.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

You need to post a screen shot of this menu. Out of the box the various "My Documents" directories do not appear on the computer submenu.

 

[caribou007]

You need to post a screen shot of this menu. Out of the box the various "My Documents" directories do not appear on the computer submenu.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Ah, now I see, 'Classic Theme' (never use it myself). The folders under 'My Computer' are system generated and can not be renamed (unless of course you just happen to have the Windows XP source code in your back pocket)

 

[caribouuu]

Source?

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Source?

Source = The program listing which, when compiled, creates all of the necessary bits that make up Windows XP.

 

[caribouuu]

...Source of information..

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Microsoft. About 10 years ago.

 

[caribouuu]

Well, exactly what information did they give you?

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Exactly what I posted. Those names are generated internally and the user has no access. The names are based partly on the profile name (Don't go changing it as it will invalidate that profile and cause a new one to be generated).

 

[caribouuu]

How does it invalidate it?

 

[caribouuu]

and what will it create a new one of?

 

[ex_bubblehead]

The GUID for the user account points to a profile by name. If you change the name then the profile no longer exists and will be created anew (empty).

 

[caribouuu]

Well, I have changed the names of other user accounts, (you call them profiles? is that the same thing?), on this system. However, these particular accounts have never had their names changed. I still don't understand why the [user] account isn't displaying the name of the [administrator] account as "[Administrator]'s Documents".

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Profiles are the folder structure stored on disk (C:\Documents and Settings\<username>). Initially they are named after the account that created them. If you rename a user account the corresponding profile is not renamed as it's the GUID associated with the account, and not the 'name', that is used internally by the system.

The display is only showing what the designers of Windows wanted it to show. It's not changeable by the user.

 

[caribouuu]

Oh, so the profile is the folder for each user, which is created the first time that user logs in with their account and contains that user's settings and files.

Well, assuming you are correct, then perhaps the reason that the "user" account's My Computer subfolder's folder link is not named to reflect the "administrator" profile's name is that the "user" profile was built before the "administrator" profile existed.

Perhaps the "user" profile should be deleted and rebuilt. However, creating a new profile for the "user" account might invalidate the data in the "administrator" profile. There should be a way to edit this data, because the creation of new accounts is a normal function of Windows, and it doesn't make sense that older accounts' data can not be updated for the creation of these accounts.

 

[caribouuu]

Thanks. I'll have to research this further.

 

[caribou007]

SOLVED:

By allowing the [user] account Read permissions over the [administrator] folder within Documents and Settings.