Hi, All.

I have five folders in my "My Documents" folder. They are namely: All Users, Default User, Guest, Ted and User. Are these all necessary?

Is it possible to combine the "Ted" and "User" folders into one folder and leave the name as "Ted"?

Ted.

Are you sure those folders are in 'My Documents'?

My comparable folders are in 'C:\Documents and Settings', which is completely different from 'My Documents'.

As Bubba said--probably good to leave alone.

Ted. wrote on Apr 8^th, 2005 at 5:44pm:


Apparantly, you have or at one time had at least two users.  Do you get two names on your login screen?  If so, those would be the Ted and User accounts.  Note the name on the login screen doesn't necessarily have to correspond with the name of the folder.  If the computer was originally setup with username "User", it would create the User folder.  The name could later be changed under Control Panel/Users but it will still be called "User" in Docs & Settings.  FTR, Windows refers to these as "name" and "full name".  "Full name" can be changed and shows on the Start Menu and Users snap-in, but "name" can't be changed and is what you'll see in the Doc&Settings folder.  (BTW, if you're using 2000 Pro or XP Pro, you can easily see which full name is associated with which account name by running "control userpasswords2".  Doesn't work in XP Home, though.)

Leave All Users alone.  That's how things like Desktop and Start Menu items are shared between users.  When Ted logs in, the profile is drawn from Ted + All Users.  When User logs in, the profile is drawn from User + All Users. 

Leave Default User alone.  That's a template the system uses when creating a new user account.

If you have two usernames in Control Panel's Users snap-in, delete one and the folder in Docs & Settings should go away.

If you have only one username in Control Panel/Users, one of the folders in Docs & Settings may be an orphan.  Before deleting it, I'd check two things first:

I don't see an Administrator folder on your system yet, so first login as Administrator (gotta do that in Safe Mode), which should establish a Docs&Settings/Administrator folder.  (The profile folder is not setup until an account is logged into for the first time.)  This lets you check that User isn't somehow tangled up with your Administrator account.

Second, carefully examine the contents of both the Ted and User folders to make sure which is the one you're really using.  Remember, it's possible for the full name "Ted" to belong to the account name "User", so we're just being careful here.  If you're satisfied that "Ted" is both the full name and account name, and User is an orphan, you can delete the User folder.