Comments for Why can't I access the Documents and Settings or Local Settings folders in Windows Vista?

Comment from mantolik on 2009-11-11

2009-11-11T15:39:13Z

Along these same lines, I have a user who's laptop (an HP) is totally dead. They have replaced it and asked me to retrieve their data. I have removed the drive and have it in a USB connected drive case. I can read some of the folders in Users, but many are still inaccessible - This folder may have been moved or be offline.... -
I am using an XP Pro machine to do this....all she is interested in retrieving are the docs, pics and music....

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A comment on: Why can't I access the Documents and Settings or Local Settings folders in Windows Vista?

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Comment from Will on 2009-09-07

2009-09-07T07:41:02Z

I was able to access Documents and Settings and a number of other directories until I uninstalled Norton 360 from my Windohs Vista SP2 machine. After this, the link icon appeared on certain folders. Norton has some kind of service for backing up your system files and all, and are persistent that you use this service to the point of being obnoxious, and are more than happy to sell you more storage space if you can't back up your data because of space limitations. I am buying a Mac laptop this coming week primarily because of the poor quality of the Vista OS. I work 10 hours a day as a software developer and tester, and don't enjoy testing Microsofts beta software. Also, I find the "service" of backing my data up an invasion of privacy on the part of Norton and others. The explanations are always sugar coated and with only you're best interest in mind. What's the deal with only one week between Vista SP1 > SP2 releases? Sorry for the vitriol towards Microsoft, but when I spend 2 months of my time working out one Vista bug after another with my Bangalore buddies, and loosing hours of work (yes I back up) I kind of loose interest in even turning the machine at all...

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Comment from Stephen C on 2009-07-24

2009-07-24T19:32:17Z

I have windows vista and subscribe to msn/hotmail, up until today I have had no problems opening attachments, why do I now have to download a document before I can open it?
p.s. when I do try to open it I get the message "failed to execute"
thanks

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A comment on: Why can't I access the Documents and Settings or Local Settings folders in Windows Vista?

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Comment from Xinghao Chen on 2009-07-04

2009-07-04T16:02:22Z

Sorry, I forgot to mention that my computer has the Windows XP Pro with the latest updates, SP3 and beyond.

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A comment on: Why can't I access the Documents and Settings or Local Settings folders in Windows Vista?

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Comment from Xinghao Chen on 2009-07-04

2009-07-04T15:59:54Z

I am unable to locate the AppData folder on my C drive. Where would the old "Local Settings" folder go?

I was making an Outlook archive and wrote down the default location where the archive file was to be saved at, which was "Documents and Settings" -> (my account name) -> Local Settings -> Application Data -> Microsoft -> Outlook -> archive.pst

Once te archive process was done, my C drive free space was down by a little more than 3GB (yes, I had a lot of stuff accumulated in Outlook). Then I went looking for that archive file, only to found that there is no "Local Settings" folder under my account name. Then I used the search looking for any folder with names having "Application" or "App" or "Data" but with no results from the WE search; I then did use WE to search for any file with "archive" in the file name; still no results.

Where would the archive file go that took 3GB out of my 40GB C drive?

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A comment on: Why can't I access the Documents and Settings or Local Settings folders in Windows Vista?

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Comment from Myles on 2009-06-28

2009-06-28T20:29:21Z

Thank god you posted this. My outlook.pst file went currupt and for the life of me I couldn't find it. I found it under my user/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Outlook Why did they move everything?

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Comment from Ken on 2009-01-26

2009-01-26T22:23:27Z

If you have show all files selected in vista it will show you old files like my documents that won't open. Uncheck show all files and the problem goes away.

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A comment on: Why can't I access the Documents and Settings or Local Settings folders in Windows Vista?

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Comment from suyanto on 2008-07-18

2008-07-18T15:31:04Z

Hi all
I'm new with Vista. I'm trying to open the 'History' folder and also the 'temporary internet folder',however I was unable to open the folder. I tried many times by using 'properties' changing the share options but it didn't work. Any idea how to open thay both folder?
thank you.

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A comment on: Why can't I access the Documents and Settings or Local Settings folders in Windows Vista?

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Comment from David Grainger on 2008-01-13

2008-01-14T00:15:44Z

I found that the change in location, by Vista, can affect Movie Maker. It can return a "General access denied error". When this happens the registry has to be edited to change the location of the temporary files from C:\Users\Local Settings\Temp folder to one that is accessible. I created C:\Users\Temp as the folder. There may be other programs that have the same problem. I have not come across them. What is strange is that Movie Maker comes installed with the OS.

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Comment from Justin on 2007-11-27

2007-11-28T07:59:36Z

Leo and others...

I have known about the shortcut and hidden juntions but my question is, if I erase them will Vista still work ok?

Any ideas?

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A comment on: Why can't I access the Documents and Settings or Local Settings folders in Windows Vista?

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Comment from Chez on 2007-11-09

2007-11-09T10:50:05Z

Ok, so I accidently fried my old mobo, (don't ask, but it involves an electric drill) so I hooked up my old hard drive to my new computer, to transfer the files.
Looking at the original article, I believe I did everything right.
Except I can't move my Outlook files and folders. It says I don't have permission to look, or move my .pst files and such. (local settings)
What did I miss?
I went thru and added myself, as administrator and as user for the security settings.
What did I miss?
Anyhelp would be GREATLY appreciated!

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A comment on: Why can't I access the Documents and Settings or Local Settings folders in Windows Vista?

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Comment from frank collins on 2007-10-10

2007-10-10T15:45:23Z

damn i hate vista. moving things does not a better program make.
what it did do was make all prior windows programs nonfunctioning under vista. other programs, 95, 98, 2000, millinum, nt, and xp will not even see vista and dont expect programs that run on them to run on vista.
so looking for programs where they used to be and finding the directory locked does nothing to increase performance.

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Comment from bcy on 2007-08-16

2007-08-16T18:51:48Z

i just got vista and was setting up permissions and got very confused by the
inability to access the documents and settings folder. I eventually figured
this out, but in the process i deleted some of these junction points. is
there a way to bring these back, and is it necessary??
many thanks

BCY

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A comment on: Why can't I access the Documents and Settings or Local Settings folders in Windows Vista?

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Comment from Josh Einstein on 2007-08-03

2007-08-03T21:06:21Z

One possible reason for changing the location is due to the fact that most Windows applications can't deal with path names greater than 255 characters and so shortening "Documents and Settings" to "Users" and shortening "My Documents" to "Documents" and shortening "My Documents\My Pictures" to just "Pictures" (and so on) saves on valuable characters that might be the difference between an application working or not working.

For example, if you tried to install Visual Studio 2003 Beta 1 from a folder on your desktop in Windows XP (assuming your username was your first and last name) there were files that would fail to install because of this limitation.

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Comment from JSKY on 2007-07-31

2007-07-31T12:07:31Z

Hi. Not all folders are accessible. The junction point folders will still say denied. No matter what you do. Because they are are virtual. You need to access then using the "Compatibility Files button". Which will lead you to the real folders in: C:\Users\User_name\AppData\Local\VirtualStore
The reason is to try to keep melware from being able to take control.

"Example" Here, IE7 running in protected mode utilizes this functionality so when you visit a webpage that tries to insert a file into the Startup folder, it instead is placed in the virtual startup folder and will not execute upon the next boot.

By placing them in a virtual folder. the system does not look for them on boot-up. But they are accessible by ways of the junction point folders. Which will always give you a "Denied" pop-up. No matter how you try to set them or your permissions.

Yes I know it's confusing, But that is how it's supposed to work.

JSKY

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Comment from Chris on 2007-07-31

2007-07-31T09:45:22Z

Guys, the solution for this is simple. You just have to take ownership of those folders (and there subfolders) in Vista. Then you will have full permission to access the content. Make sure your account has full access on the security settings and your current account is what holds the ownership permission and not "Administrator" (the one for XP)or whatever its set as by default.. Don't worry, if you are doing a dual boot, you can still access XP. The permission only changes in Vista.

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Comment from Dave B on 2007-07-24

2007-07-24T15:07:19Z

WARNING! DEEPLY NERDY RESPONSE!

Now here's the weird part - the "My Documents" folder is kind of still there in Vista. It is now a hidden "Junction Point". A junction point is a hidden file pointer in NTFS. What does that mean to you? It means that older programs, which are hard coded to copy files to the My Documents directory, will be redirected to the new Documents folder in Windows Vista.

If you're really nerdy, you can try this test:
1) Create a test file
2) Start the cmd prompt
3) CD to your normal user directory - usually it is C:\Users\YourUserName
4) Now do this: cd "My Documents"
5) Weird, eh? You are moved into an "empty" directory???
6) copy your test file into this location from the CMD prompt
7) Perform a DIR - the file isn't there? Where is it?
8) Check your Vista Documents directory - there it is!

Where does this get to be a challenge? I use RoboCopy to back-up my documents onto a thumb-drive each day at work. This gives me a portable, readable image that is easy to work with. However, the "My Documents" junction point gives RoboCopy fits causing "Access Denied" errors. I had to add the /R:1 command line option to skip the error and continue with the MIRror.

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A comment on: Why can't I access the Documents and Settings or Local Settings folders in Windows Vista?

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