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Alistair7Flag for Norway

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Why are "Default User.windows" and "All Users.windows" system folders created

Under Documents and Settings one should only see

"Default Users", "All Users" system folders plus any others user profiles.

But my system has created the additional folders:

"Default Users.windows" and "All Users.windows"  These folders are being used instead of the others.

How have they been created in the first place.

I need to know because this is now the 2nd time it has happened on 2 different computers.

What am I doing wrong that is creating these substitute folders?

I do not want to know how to deal with them now, I only want to know how they have been created.
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FriarTuk

When a new user is created the profile it derives from is default users, however the all users folder allows sharing things amongst all user

all user desktop icons are on every user's profile desktop

if you create set favorites under default users, all new users will have those favorites too
if it is recreating them i would think that indicates a corrupted profile
Is your domain/workgroup called windows?

I have seen profiles recreated with username.domainname (sometimes increasing to username.domainname.000, username.domainname.001)

I think it is caused if the active (roaming?) profile isn't relinquished properly at logoff, then when logging back on again a profile with username can't be created so it adds the .domain or .domain.000, etc.

I know this doesn't fit your issue exactly but it hopefully it will point you in the right direction.

Can you post more info about your setup?
Have you carried out a repair or in place re-install?
Are you using a domain?

Nat
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Nat_c

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I have not connected them to a domain at all
The workgroup is not called "Window"
Fujitsu Siemens Amilo pro V2045 laptop
I have installed XP pro volume license over the top of XP pro single user.
But I really thought I had deleted the old partition. However I had problems "seeing" the harddisk because it is a sata drive, and I needed to deactivate AHCI in the bios before I could see the drive and install XP.  It was quite a confusing process to get XP installed along with the sata drivers, WITHOUT A FLOPPY DRIVE. It's such a pain that so many programs still expect to see and use a floppy drive.

Maybe in the confusion I forgot to delete the old partition and the old system files were still present.

SHOULD I DO A REINSTALL??  An image of this laptop will be rolled out to 9 others.  So I can't afford to make a mistake.
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Mohammed Hamada
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I agree, I think that if it was a machine that wasn't being imaged I'd be tempted to try and resolve the issue.

As it is being imaged and rolled out to 9 others you could be creating more problems in the long run by cutting corners now.

Nat
Thanks for the help

Al