How many user folders are supposed to be under "Documents andsettings"?

[Guest James]

I got this machine off ebay with XP already installed. When I look

under "documents and settings", there seem to be a lot of user folders

with basically the same set of subfolders i.e.

Application Data, Cookies, Desktop, Favorites, Local Settings, My

Documents, NetHood, etc.

 

How many sets of these are there supposed to be? Right now under

documents and settings there are 7 of these folders - Administrator,

All Users, All users.windows, Default User, Default User.Windows,

mike, Mike.Mike-(followed by some nums and letters), Mike~1~MIK

 

Except for the last one Mike~1~MIK, they all have many of the above

mentioned subfolders - Favorites, Local Settings, etc. Some are

empty, some aren't.

 

Why would there be so many redundant folders like this? It makes

searching for some things a pain. Is there a way to consolidate, get

rid of some of them without messing things up?

 

Thanks for all assistance.

[Guest Olórin]

Re: How many user folders are supposed to be under "Documents and settings"?

 

Re: How many user folders are supposed to be under "Documents and settings"?

 

"James" <muzician21@yahoo.com> wrote in message

news:c9454e89-8b14-45c6-984c-efda56eded21@w1g2000prk.googlegroups.com...

>I got this machine off ebay with XP already installed. When I look

> under "documents and settings", there seem to be a lot of user folders

> with basically the same set of subfolders i.e.

> Application Data, Cookies, Desktop, Favorites, Local Settings, My

> Documents, NetHood, etc.

>

> How many sets of these are there supposed to be? Right now under

> documents and settings there are 7 of these folders - Administrator,

> All Users, All users.windows, Default User, Default User.Windows,

> mike, Mike.Mike-(followed by some nums and letters), Mike~1~MIK

>

> Except for the last one Mike~1~MIK, they all have many of the above

> mentioned subfolders - Favorites, Local Settings, etc. Some are

> empty, some aren't.

>

> Why would there be so many redundant folders like this? It makes

> searching for some things a pain. Is there a way to consolidate, get

> rid of some of them without messing things up?

>

> Thanks for all assistance.

 

It's been used, it's not a fresh install, so my advice would be:

 

1) If you've been given the capability of wiping and reinstalling XP from

scratch, do that (having backed up any files you created and need to keep).

 

2) If you haven't been given that capability, seek to obtain it from the

seller, then do (1).

 

3) If you *really* can't do the above for any reasons: log on as

administrator and delete all accounts as appearing in Control Panel > User

Accounts. Create one for yourself, log in and use that. Do as thorough a

check as you can - who knows what's on it? Viruses, spyware, keyloggers,

rootkits, illegal files, pirated software, auto-starting apps you don't want

hogging resources, etc etc. But you really would be *much* better off

starting over, IMO.

[Guest Don Phillipson]

Re: How many user folders are supposed to be under "Documents and settings"?

 

Re: How many user folders are supposed to be under "Documents and settings"?

 

> "James" <muzician21@yahoo.com> wrote in message

> news:c9454e89-8b14-45c6-984c-efda56eded21@w1g2000prk.googlegroups.com...

> >I got this machine off ebay with XP already installed. When I look

> > under "documents and settings", there seem to be a lot of user folders

> > with basically the same set of subfolders i.e.

> > Application Data, Cookies, Desktop, Favorites, Local Settings, My

> > Documents, NetHood, etc.

> >

> > How many sets of these are there supposed to be? Right now under

> > documents and settings there are 7 of these folders - Administrator,

> > All Users, All users.windows, Default User, Default User.Windows,

> > mike, Mike.Mike-(followed by some nums and letters), Mike~1~MIK

 

"Olórin" <incanus@erkljrjre890aeraekj4na.com> wrote in message

news:%231VVCcsKJHA.5460@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...

> It's been used, it's not a fresh install, so my advice would be:

>

> 1) If you've been given the capability of wiping and reinstalling XP from

> scratch, do that (having backed up any files you created and need to

keep).

> . . .

> 3) If you *really* can't do the above for any reasons: log on as

> administrator and delete all accounts as appearing in Control Panel > User

> Accounts. Create one for yourself, log in and use that. Do as thorough a

> check as you can - who knows what's on it? Viruses, spyware, keyloggers,

> rootkits, illegal files, pirated software, auto-starting apps you don't

want

> hogging resources, etc etc. But you really would be *much* better off

> starting over, IMO.

 

The main question is whether you want to save Folders and Documents

(and settings) as currently used by either Administrator or whichever

User you are every day. If so, you can use the F&D Wizard (customizable)

to save data to the hard drive, then create new users (Admin or Mike or

both). You can then reinstal if you like: then import (via Wizard) your

settings

for the new user(s), and only lastly erase the unwanted old users.

 

--

Don Phillipson

Carlsbad Springs

(Ottawa, Canada)

[Guest Big_Al]

Re: How many user folders are supposed to be under "Documents andsettings"?

 

James wrote:

> I got this machine off ebay with XP already installed. When I look

> under "documents and settings", there seem to be a lot of user folders

> with basically the same set of subfolders i.e.

> Application Data, Cookies, Desktop, Favorites, Local Settings, My

> Documents, NetHood, etc.

>

> How many sets of these are there supposed to be? Right now under

> documents and settings there are 7 of these folders - Administrator,

> All Users, All users.windows, Default User, Default User.Windows,

> mike, Mike.Mike-(followed by some nums and letters), Mike~1~MIK

>

> Except for the last one Mike~1~MIK, they all have many of the above

> mentioned subfolders - Favorites, Local Settings, etc. Some are

> empty, some aren't.

>

> Why would there be so many redundant folders like this? It makes

> searching for some things a pain. Is there a way to consolidate, get

> rid of some of them without messing things up?

>

> Thanks for all assistance.

 

All the other good advice not withstanding, the number of folders in

documents and settings is dependent upon how many programs you have that

want to store stuff in there. Its your documents and settings so if you

take that to an extreme, then every program would write a "setting"

there. And since each user has a folder, that makes it just great for

each program to save a different set of settings per user.

The scheme may seem redundant to you, in your world, but if I have 4

people using my PC, I don't want everyone having the same IE favorites

right? If you reload as Olorin suggested, life will be easier & more

logical.