Documents folder hidden in public folders, but cannot unhide

[colin.robbins]

Hello, I have what appears to be an odd issue, and I can't find
reference to it on the web anywhere.

Under the Public folder on my Vista machine, I can see the folders
Public Downloads, Public Music etc. BUT Public Documents is missing.

If I use the cmd shell, I get the same effect:
Directory of C:\Users\Public
11/05/2008 16:54 <DIR> .
11/05/2008 16:54 <DIR> ..
13/04/2008 08:37 <DIR> Downloads
11/05/2008 16:54 3,403,458 Library.xml
11/05/2008 17:13 <DIR> Music
15/02/2008 18:16 <DIR> Perl
12/02/2008 19:15 <DIR> Pictures
26/04/2008 08:25 <DIR> Recorded TV
05/04/2008 11:11 <DIR> Videos


HOWEVER the documents folder does exist. I can CD into it and see my
files.

From within explorer, I can enter C:\Users\Public\Documents explicitly
and get to the folder, but is does not show up under
C:\users\Public.

Looking at the folder permissions, documents is marked as "hidden".
If I use explorer to show hidden folders, it shows up just fine.

Why is is hidden?
How can I unhide it?
Unchecking "hide" in the folder propertied of the documents folder does
not work - it is greyed out.

This used to all work just fine, but then the folder suddenly took on
this hidden nature.

This is a clean vista install, not an upgrade.
Any help most appreciated.

[Keith Miller \(MVP\)]

In a Command Prompt window, in the 'C:\Users\Public' directory, type:

attrib -h documents

[colin.robbins]

Regrettable that does not work...

C:\Users\Colin>cd c:\users\public
c:\Users\Public>attrib -h documents
*Not resetting system file - C:\Users\Public\Documents*
c:\Users\Public>

[Malke]

Did you do it at an elevated command prompt? If not, then I think you need
to do so.

Start Orb>Search box>type: cmd
When cmd appears in the Results box above, right-click and Run As
Administrator. Then try your attrib -h.

[Keith Miller \(MVP\)]

Hmmm... Mine don't have the system attribute set, but try:

attrib -h -s documents

[colin.robbins]

Thanks guys - the combination of "run as administrator" and the "-s"
flag solved the issue.

The folder is now shown as "documents" rather than "public documents"
is was before, but I can live with that.

Cheers

Colin


--
colin.robbins
Posted via http://www.vistaheads.com

[Keith Miller \(MVP\)]

Glad that's solved.

The name 'Public Documents' comes from the desktop.ini file (which is
normally flagged as hidden and system). For Explorer to process the
desktop.ini file, the folder must have its read-only or system attribute
set. So use:

attrib +r documents

and if the desktop.ini file is still there, you will get the proper display
name. If it was deleted, here are the contents:


[.ShellClassInfo]
LocalizedResourceName=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-21801
IconResource=%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-235

[colin.robbins]

Eureka - the attrib +r documents has solved the problem fully.

Many thanks for your help.

[Keith Miller \(MVP\)]

You're welcome.