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deleting special vista folders

(4 posts)
  • Started 5 years ago by keith
  • Latest reply from keith
  • Topic Viewed 1317 times

keith
Posts: 3

I just got a new (Dell Inspiron 1520) laptop with Vista basic. On Windows Explorer the folder just below “Desktop� has my name (Keith) and it looks like what used to be called the old “My Documents� folder. I’ve decided to try to use this folder (never liked it in XP), but first I want to be able to delete every single blue subfolder in there (Contacts, Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, etc.)

When I try to delete the folders I don’t get an error message saying, “You don’t have permission.� Instead the folders actually delete, until I reboot, and then they’re all back again. I found these instructions for taking ownership of the folders: “Right Click the Folder - Choose Properties. Go to the Security Tab- Click Advanced - Go to Owner Tab - Click Edit - Under Change Owner to select Administrator and then tick the box to do all subcontainers and objects and click Apply. This will give you ownership. Now you need to give yourself full-control.�

I did all that and made the Administrator the Owner. Fine. Then to get full control I followed these instructions: “Right Click the Folder - Choose Properties. Go to the Security Tab-Click Edit button - Click Administrators and tick Full Control in the boxes and click Apply.�

Actually, Full Control was the default and Apply was grayed out, but I decided it was now all configured correctly. So I deleted the folders again. After a reboot they were all back again. Can anybody tell me how to get rid of all of the subfolders in this folder?

Thanks in advance.
Keith

Posted 5 years ago #
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jd2066
jd2066
Posts: 3814

Unfortunately due to the way Windows Special Folders are designed you can't remove them. Also when it comes to the User's Files special folder you can't hide the special folders inside it.
The best bet if you want to use the User File's folder is to use it as it was designed for.
Contacts for Windows Contacts - If you use a different contacts program you will just have to ignore this folder.
Desktop for Desktop Items - All the files you put on the desktop go in this folder.
Documents for text files, letters, etc - This is where the My Documents folder from XP moved to.
Downloads for files downloaded from the internet.
Favorites for Internet Explorer Favorites. - If you use a different browser you will just have to ignore this folder
Links for shortcuts to favorite folders - The shortcuts in here are displayed in the Favorite Links section to the left in Windows Explorer.
Music/Pictures/Videos are self explanatory - These are the same as the 3 "My X" folders in My Documents in XP.
Saved Games for games to put save files - Only Windows games like Solitaire save here at the moment.
Searches for saved searches - Where searches go when you click "Save Search" in the Vista search Window.
Justin

Posted 5 years ago #
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keith
Posts: 3

Thanks Justin. I'm a little disappointed that I can't control my own machine. I'm not the type to shoehorn myself into the microsoft mold. I guess that's why I didn't use the "My Documents" folder in XP either. It's just that the user folders are so prominent I thought I'd make use of them, if they were a bit flexible. But since they aren't, I won't! Thanks for your reply.
Keith

Posted 5 years ago #
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keith
Posts: 3

I was able to eliminate the special Search folder by assigning ownership to the administrator and then Hiding it. I then frog-marched it in handcuffs to a gulag in the Siberian section of my hard drive never to be seen or heard from again. Unfortunately this process did not work for any of the other "special" folders. I don't know if anyone else feels the way I do about these folders. Why call it a "user" folder if I can't use it the way I want? If I figure out how to get rid of the rest of these handy dandy folders I will post to this forum.
Keith

Posted 5 years ago #
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