Location of 'Documents & Settings' folder

Sponsored Links

Help! I cannot seem to find the 'Documents & Settings' folder in my new
VISTA PC. I have tried searching for it, but to no avail.

Where could it be hiding and for that matter why does a search for
normal.dot OR normal*.dot reveal nothing? I do have Office 2007 loaded on
this PC.

Look for the "Users" folder instead - this is the new location of the
profile, All User and Default User folders.

--
Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] rgharper@gmail.com
* NEW! Catch my blog ... http://msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/
* PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
* The Website - http://rgharper.mvps.org/
* HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


"Ignoramus" <laguna275@bloody.yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:uAEvc$o7HHA.1208@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> Help! I cannot seem to find the 'Documents & Settings' folder in my new
> VISTA PC. I have tried searching for it, but to no avail.
>
> Where could it be hiding and for that matter why does a search for
> normal.dot OR normal*.dot reveal nothing? I do have Office 2007 loaded on
> this PC.
>
>

Microsoft changed the location of several of these common folders.
the documents and settings folder technically is still there, but is
configured as an ntfs junction (essentially a file system redirect)
the user profile settings are under C:\users

the template you are looking for should be under
C:\users\%username%\appdata\roaming\microsoft\templates\normal.dotm
your search probably revealed nothing if you searched for *.dot since office
2007 file extensions have changed also


"Ignoramus" <laguna275@bloody.yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:uAEvc$o7HHA.1208@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> Help! I cannot seem to find the 'Documents & Settings' folder in my new
> VISTA PC. I have tried searching for it, but to no avail.
>
> Where could it be hiding and for that matter why does a search for
> normal.dot OR normal*.dot reveal nothing? I do have Office 2007 loaded on
> this PC.
>
>

Hi Ignoramus--

In Vista "Documents and Settings" isn't really a folder. It's a "junction
point" - like a soft link, in Unix.

The *real* directory where user data is kept in Vista, is called "C:\Users".
If you use "Users" in place of "Documents and Settings" you should be sweet.
Eg, C:\Users\Ignoramus' Profile on Vista\Documents, etc.

The "Documents and Settings" junction point exists to preserve compatibility
for applications which have this path name hard-coded. Well-behaved
applications should not have a hard-coded "Documents and Settings" string;
they should call SHGetSpecialFolder() instead, to find the User directory on
a system. But just a sad fact of life, many apps out there do look for a
"Documents and Settings" directory ....

"Users" is preferable to "Documents and Settings" because many apps have
problems with path names containing spaces. It also soaks up more chars
from the limited 260 char MAX_PATH length for directory names. Finally,
"Users" is more intuitive for folks coming from Unix and other, more normal
operating system environments :-)

The "Documents and Settings" junction point is usually hidden and not
visible in Explorer. If you are seeing it in an obtrusive way, you may have
turned ON the folder option to see hidden files.

Refs on Junction Points in Vista:

http://www.svrops.com/svrops/articles/jpoints.htm

http://windowsconnected.com/blogs/jo...on-Points.aspx

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/Window...therDrive.aspx

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/MoreOn...rsePoints.aspx

Good luck,

CH


"Ignoramus" <laguna275@bloody.yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:uAEvc$o7HHA.1208@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> Help! I cannot seem to find the 'Documents & Settings' folder in my new
> VISTA PC. I have tried searching for it, but to no avail.
>
> Where could it be hiding and for that matter why does a search for
> normal.dot OR normal*.dot reveal nothing? I do have Office 2007 loaded on
> this PC.
>
>

I did look in the Users Folder - both in Public as well as >myname< - but I
cannot find the usual 'Application Data' or Templates directory after that.

Any further clues?



"Richard G. Harper" <rgharper@email.com> wrote in message
news:ekg8CGp7HHA.5184@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> Look for the "Users" folder instead - this is the new location of the
> profile, All User and Default User folders.

There's no "Documents" menu choice after you click start? In the right-hand
pane near the top?



"Ignoramus" <laguna275@bloody.yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:uAEvc$o7HHA.1208@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> Help! I cannot seem to find the 'Documents & Settings' folder in my new
> VISTA PC. I have tried searching for it, but to no avail.
>
> Where could it be hiding and for that matter why does a search for
> normal.dot OR normal*.dot reveal nothing? I do have Office 2007 loaded on
> this PC.
>
>

C:\Users\youraccount\AppData
it's hidden by default.


"Ignoramus" <laguna275@bloody.yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:O4SjoJp7HHA.1188@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>I did look in the Users Folder - both in Public as well as >myname< - but I
>cannot find the usual 'Application Data' or Templates directory after that.
>
> Any further clues?
>
>
>
> "Richard G. Harper" <rgharper@email.com> wrote in message
> news:ekg8CGp7HHA.5184@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>> Look for the "Users" folder instead - this is the new location of the
>> profile, All User and Default User folders.
>

Chad & Seth,

Thanks for the detailed responses and for taking the time to explain
'junction points' - that was a new one for me!

My problem is that I cannot find a sub-directory called 'Appdata' in my
Users folder (even though my Win Explorer is set to show hidden files). I
need this to migrate my older Winword Autotext entries (from a Office XP
running on Win 2000 Pro) to my new Vista PC. This should be possible as per
MS (see
http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office....mspx?mfr=true)
but I cannot start doing this if I cannot find AppData!

Thanks




"Chad Harris" <vistaneedsmuchowork.net> wrote in message
news:uLZgtGp7HHA.1204@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> Hi Ignoramus--
>
> In Vista "Documents and Settings" isn't really a folder. It's a "junction
> point" - like a soft link, in Unix.
>
> The *real* directory where user data is kept in Vista, is called
> "C:\Users".
> If you use "Users" in place of "Documents and Settings" you should be
> sweet.
> Eg, C:\Users\Ignoramus' Profile on Vista\Documents, etc.
>
> The "Documents and Settings" junction point exists to preserve
> compatibility
> for applications which have this path name hard-coded. Well-behaved
> applications should not have a hard-coded "Documents and Settings" string;
> they should call SHGetSpecialFolder() instead, to find the User directory
> on
> a system. But just a sad fact of life, many apps out there do look for a
> "Documents and Settings" directory ....
>
> "Users" is preferable to "Documents and Settings" because many apps have
> problems with path names containing spaces. It also soaks up more chars
> from the limited 260 char MAX_PATH length for directory names. Finally,
> "Users" is more intuitive for folks coming from Unix and other, more
> normal
> operating system environments :-)
>
> The "Documents and Settings" junction point is usually hidden and not
> visible in Explorer. If you are seeing it in an obtrusive way, you may
> have
> turned ON the folder option to see hidden files.
>
> Refs on Junction Points in Vista:
>
> http://www.svrops.com/svrops/articles/jpoints.htm
>
> http://windowsconnected.com/blogs/jo...on-Points.aspx
>
> http://www.hanselman.com/blog/Window...therDrive.aspx
>
> http://www.hanselman.com/blog/MoreOn...rsePoints.aspx
>
> Good luck,
>
> CH
>
>
> "Ignoramus" <laguna275@bloody.yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:uAEvc$o7HHA.1208@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>> Help! I cannot seem to find the 'Documents & Settings' folder in my new
>> VISTA PC. I have tried searching for it, but to no avail.
>>
>> Where could it be hiding and for that matter why does a search for
>> normal.dot OR normal*.dot reveal nothing? I do have Office 2007 loaded on
>> this PC.
>>
>>
>

It is now just called Documents and is in your User folder
Where are you looking for your dot

"Ignoramus" <laguna275@bloody.yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:uAEvc$o7HHA.1208@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> Help! I cannot seem to find the 'Documents & Settings' folder in my new
> VISTA PC. I have tried searching for it, but to no avail.
>
> Where could it be hiding and for that matter why does a search for
> normal.dot OR normal*.dot reveal nothing? I do have Office 2007 loaded on
> this PC.
>
>

Yes, there is - but it only contains a folder called 'My Google Gadgets'
which is some crapola that the PC manufacturer loaded to earn a few
Googlebucks. The documents folder you refer to seems to be only there for
documents that I create and not for system docs that were contained in the
'old' Documents and Settings folder in previous incarnations of Windows


"DP" <nospam@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:uz4twMp7HHA.4436@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>
> There's no "Documents" menu choice after you click start? In the
> right-hand pane near the top?
>

%APPDATA% is what is called a metatag - it is not an actual directory name,
but rather a placeholder for the actual location of the Application Data
folder since it changes between Windows versions. So if you follow the
advice given a few replies ago you will find the new location of the
Application Data folder.

--
Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] rgharper@gmail.com
* NEW! Catch my blog ... http://msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/
* PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
* The Website - http://rgharper.mvps.org/
* HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


"Ignoramus" <laguna275@bloody.yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:Ou53MUp7HHA.1900@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Chad & Seth,
>
> Thanks for the detailed responses and for taking the time to explain
> 'junction points' - that was a new one for me!
>
> My problem is that I cannot find a sub-directory called 'Appdata' in my
> Users folder (even though my Win Explorer is set to show hidden files). I
> need this to migrate my older Winword Autotext entries (from a Office XP
> running on Win 2000 Pro) to my new Vista PC. This should be possible as
> per MS (see
> http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office....mspx?mfr=true)
> but I cannot start doing this if I cannot find AppData!

YEAH! I was having the same problem as you. After (literally) 1-1/2 hours
and tears since I work at home and needed templates before I could start, I
FINALLY found them.

<my name>/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/Templates

I have no idea where they got "roaming!" Everytime I even tried to search
for Templates, it would say, "access denied." I had just about given
up--just as I was thinking Vista wasn't so bad.

Oh, well. I hope this helped.

"Ignoramus" wrote:

> Help! I cannot seem to find the 'Documents & Settings' folder in my new
> VISTA PC. I have tried searching for it, but to no avail.
>
> Where could it be hiding and for that matter why does a search for
> normal.dot OR normal*.dot reveal nothing? I do have Office 2007 loaded on
> this PC.
>
>
>