Folder names changing
We have a new file server in place with users folder shared out as USERS$ and then subfolders for each user. The server has been in production now for about a month. In looking on the server this morning, many of the subfolders now appear as My Documents instead of the expected. If you click on the properties of the folder it shows \\servername\users$\userna
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I changed the desktop.ini permissions as indicated in the links. I searched for desktop.ini in the users$ folder and changed the permission there. I logged in as one of the users and the share still appears as My Documents on the server. Have I changed the permission in the proper location and will the folder name revert back to the actual username rather than My Documents when completed properly?
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Also - users showing this issue are thin cllient users logging onto Windows 2008 terminal servers with Citrix XenAPP 6.5 in case this makes a difference
If you used the KB article and method 3 it should fix it for existing users regardless of how they are accessing it.
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and to my previous comment? will the folder go back to its original name being the username? Or will need to manually go change them back?
You need to understand what is actually happening. The folder name itself never changed it just displays differently because of the desktop.ini file.
By DENYing read access to say "Domain Administrators" the next time a domain admin opens that share it will display the real folder name because it can't read the desktop.ini that overrides that default display.
You'll need to set a DENY on the desktop.ini files for anyone or group that you want to see the real name of the folder for.
That second link gives you a script to help automate it, but in your case if it is only 5-10 folders you can set the permissions for each desktop.ini file pretty quick manually.
Does that help?
By DENYing read access to say "Domain Administrators" the next time a domain admin opens that share it will display the real folder name because it can't read the desktop.ini that overrides that default display.
You'll need to set a DENY on the desktop.ini files for anyone or group that you want to see the real name of the folder for.
That second link gives you a script to help automate it, but in your case if it is only 5-10 folders you can set the permissions for each desktop.ini file pretty quick manually.
Does that help?
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Tried opening one of the folders by going to actual folder name and it opened but it is still listed as My Documents when looking at the folder structure through explorer
You set a deny for your account on the desktop.ini for that folder?
It should work as described. Make sure the account you are using to view the structure has been set to DENY explicitly.
Another alternative would be to use icacls to do it:
%windir%\system32\icacls.e
Where %homedrive% is the location of the user's shared folder. Probably not wise to use Domain Admins though...better to limit just your account or create a group of user accounts called "Home Folders Correct Names" or something like that and put your account in there and deny that group access.
Remember, it is the desktop.ini file INSIDE each of the user's folders that you must change and by default they are hidden.
It should work as described. Make sure the account you are using to view the structure has been set to DENY explicitly.
Another alternative would be to use icacls to do it:
%windir%\system32\icacls.e
Where %homedrive% is the location of the user's shared folder. Probably not wise to use Domain Admins though...better to limit just your account or create a group of user accounts called "Home Folders Correct Names" or something like that and put your account in there and deny that group access.
Remember, it is the desktop.ini file INSIDE each of the user's folders that you must change and by default they are hidden.
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The file is located in e:\users$\username\windows
It is only the administrator account showing this behaviour. When I browse to that location via my laptop and my account - all are listed as expected.
I under stand we are essentially saying the same thing. Just wanted to verify the location of the desktop.ini that I am modifying the rigths to as being the one you mean
It is only the administrator account showing this behaviour. When I browse to that location via my laptop and my account - all are listed as expected.
I under stand we are essentially saying the same thing. Just wanted to verify the location of the desktop.ini that I am modifying the rigths to as being the one you mean
Yeah, except in the case I've seen when working with a small biz on this, it was just inside the share itself.
So if the folder was \\server\SHARE\username
and the user mapped to \\server\USERS\kingsville
then the desktop.ini file would be at \\server\USERS\kingsville\
One thing to note...I see that sometimes a user on Technet will state that even after setting DENY permissions it still shows wrong. You could search for the desktop.ini files and just delete them it seems. I have never done that though...and I'm not sure what exactly that would do (if it would auto-recreate one the next time a user connects to their share or what).
One thing I find interesting is that I've never had this happen at my actual company, perhaps because of the way I do share and user level permissions. For me I deny the user access to anything except their folders and they only have modify rights, not Full Control. Not sure if that causes the desktop.ini to not have the same effect you are seeing.
So if the folder was \\server\SHARE\username
and the user mapped to \\server\USERS\kingsville
then the desktop.ini file would be at \\server\USERS\kingsville\
One thing to note...I see that sometimes a user on Technet will state that even after setting DENY permissions it still shows wrong. You could search for the desktop.ini files and just delete them it seems. I have never done that though...and I'm not sure what exactly that would do (if it would auto-recreate one the next time a user connects to their share or what).
One thing I find interesting is that I've never had this happen at my actual company, perhaps because of the way I do share and user level permissions. For me I deny the user access to anything except their folders and they only have modify rights, not Full Control. Not sure if that causes the desktop.ini to not have the same effect you are seeing.
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oh, forgot to mention; in server 2008 you will need an elevated command prompt to do this.
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The solution will work as a workaround to the issue to make things easier to work with in the future
See here for a few links I'd saved from the past:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947222
http://blog.salamandersoft.co.uk/index.php/2010/09/how-to-stop-home-folders-being-renamed-documents-in-the-network-share/
NOTE: there might be new KB articles or fixes on this...I didn't dig too deep to be sure, but the KB article I posted looks like it was revised in September so there can't be too many updates since then.