[deanbo]

I am running XP Pro and have asked this question to several poeple but never get a straight answer to it.

Why is there more than 1 MY Documents ?

Let me clarify my needs and situation first.This PC is only used by Me No-one else uses it or will.I am on dial-up but looking at BB soon. I have no need for a LAN or Bluetooth or any of the more fancy things in XP Pro.

Is the 2 My Doc's thing because you can log in as another user and it's set up that way as default ? I would like a very simple File structure in my Hard drive and have no need whatsoever for My Dos within My docs and settings for instance and another my doc's on the start menu as i have.

Having given you my frugal needs is there a way i could simplify things and customise the OS to suit me ? Rather than me getting lost and frustrated trying to navigate to some file that could be in either one ?

I realise it may call for a re-install and that's fine as it could do with one anyway and perhaps someone knows some process i should follow to simplify things with the multiple user thing as I DO NOT need that at all as it' just me.
Thanks to everyone for your help in advance Deanbo

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i don't even know what you mean by two MY DOCS...could you please specify the paths to these folders?

If you are referring to a MY DOCS under administrator, default user, all users, these are normal

[gerryf]

i don't even know what you mean by two MY DOCS...could you please specify the paths to these folders?

If you are referring to a MY DOCS under administrator, default user, all users, these are normal

[Pi rules]

Is the 2 My Doc's thing because you can log in as another user and it's set up that way as default ? I would like a very simple File structure in my Hard drive and have no need whatsoever for My Dos within My docs and settings for instance and another my doc's on the start menu as i have.

There aren't two My Documents folders. The one on the Start Menu is just a shortcut to the one located under C:\Documents and Settings\username\.

Would you like to remove the shortcut?

Please correct me if I misunderstood.

[deanbo]

Yes i have explained myself a bit wrong here gerryf.What i meant was this.

C<Docs and settings<then i have a choice of Admin,All users and User, in which all
3 have a folder called My Documents.But the USER folder is where MY Docs actually are.The others such as admin and all user have just a few things in them.
AS i use this as a single user should i be using the admin one ? Does it have any
benefits by using the folder in admin rather than User ?

I had this OS installed for me[by an MS engineer] and didn't do it myself and he is
a gamer mostly and doesn't really use a PC like i do,so he doesn't know much
about the file and folder structure within XP.I realise the Admin has more power
over the OS than me as User,should i be the Admin ? As it's just me using it ? and
if that's right how do I become the admin ? Is it a re-install ?

I know it sounds odd an MS engineer not knowing this but he really doesn't know
much about these things and HE recommended i ask you too.

What advantages can be had from logging on as another user ? Is there again some info i could read up on that ? I either use this PC for the web OR as a DAW
with my audio stuff.Is it possible to log on as 1 user and my normal apps run like
that for general web surfing and then log on as another user and just have my audio stuff running when i'm offline ?

I have never had this mutiple user thing explained to me as i use it just for me and
if someone could direct me to some info on that,i would be very greatful.

The reason I HAVE to use XP is my audio apps like Nuendo,Sonar and Adobe audition,won't run on 98.
I have only had a PC for a little over a year now and was a complete novice before
I have passed 2 IT courses but they didn't address this issue,so i thought it was
best i asked you all for any info or help on this.I am a beginner in many ways,a
very curious beginner,but as i have never seen any user manual for XP[if it exists],i do get confused a bit.So please lead this horse to water and i promise he will drink.

[Pi rules]

Hello, I'm going to try and answer some of your questions. Please post back if you have more, some that I missed, if you want a better explanation, etc.

AS i use this as a single user should i be using the admin one ?

No, just keep using your account.

Does it have any benefits by using the folder in admin rather than User?

Not that I know of.

should i be the Admin ? As it's just me using it ? and if that's right how do I become the admin ? Is it a re-install ?

You may already be logged on with Administrative capabilities, so you have the same abilities. Again, you should keep using your account.

What advantages can be had from logging on as another user ?

Personal settings and documents for each account.

Read this for an explanation of user groups in XP.

[gerryf]

I like all those answers---plus, if I might add...it is GOOD to have an account seperate from the admin account.

For many people, I would recommend a limited user account that cannot install programs for every day use, which can actually prevent malware infections.

This is the default setup for a linux machine, where the admin account is rarely used.

Another reason, it is not uncommon to have a profile go bad--having the second profile allows you to log onto your machine and rescue your files. Ironically, this happened to me last week after three years of perfect performance on my laptop, I went to my fantasy hockey draft and BLONK--no laptop with my normal profile.

Fortunately, I was able to log in on the second account and recover my hockey cheat sheets or I might have ended up with a losing season

[deanbo]

Thanks gerryf and Pi rules that's good to know i'm not doing anything terribly wrong.Most poeple i know just play games,which is fine but i don't so i often find they don't know the answers.

And thanks for the link too,that's the response i was after not being flamed as has happened at other places.

One Last question,my audio apps are VERY DIFFERENT from the rest of the PC and most members in the guitar forums where i moderate use 2 hard drives and have those apps on a seperate HDD.I have a large HDD 120gig and have never used more than 6% of it,but i know the music stuff needs plenty of space.I am on dial-up BTW.{Yes i'm a moderator but it's guitars not PC's thank god].

So if you were ME would you partition it or get a 2nd HDD as i know from other forum members experience that they go to great lengths to keep the 2 seperate.
I have been told partitioning my drive is a waste of time and offers NO BENEFIT.
Is that True ?
If it is how should i use this 120 gigs of space as i know from experience that my PC slows down when things start filling up but it's nowhere near full.
Is that because the folders[Shell?] in windows slow the PC down when they fill up as i have been led to believe,and if that's the case am i supposed to make my own little folder tree structure on C but NOT inside WINDOWS.

Like C<[i then have half a dozen folders,including widows]Then I make something like Audio-then make sub-directories for the specific apps ? I have worked this out myself,am i right ?

I just can't understand why my PC runs slowly when it admitedlly contains a lot of info,but still has 94% left of free space ?Am I on the right track by thinking it's when Shell folders within windows get full, that slows things down ? And that other folders i create can hold lots of info WITHOUT slowing my PC down ?
I really [apart from that 1 explanation] have no idea why anyone would want a large HDD,if when you start filling it up it slows my 2 gig AMD CPU,512mb DDR2700 ram PC down to a crawl.
I have CCleaner and diskeeper 9 pro and ace utilities too so i do clean it out and have the tools to do a decent job of it.
Be prepared as i want to use Firefox instead of IE6 soon and i will have many questions i'm sure. again many thanks in advance.

[Michael]

So if you were ME would you partition it or get a 2nd HDD as i know from other forum members experience that they go to great lengths to keep the 2 separate.

It all there are I don't see the point realty of keeping them on separate hard drives to me it just means more space to put things.

I have been told partitioning my drive is a waste of time and offers NO BENEFIT.

There are benefits, but negatives as well. If you have them on separate partitions they don't get fragmented as much. But the read/write head has to move further to get all the information. It is more for organization reasons that I have more than one partition.

Is that because the folders[Shell?] in windows slow the PC down when they fill up

I have never heard of that before. I think there is a lot of confusion about have more stuff on you hard drive, it dose not make much of a difference, I tested using 11GB of music the slow down was very small. The reason is that often it is the adding of more programs that slow the computer down because parts of them do start with Windows. If you what more speed read Easy Xp Tweaks Second Edition Tweak 7 explains how to turn off the start up programs.

Like C<[i then have half a dozen folders,including widows]Then I make something like Audio-then make sub-directories for the specific apps ? I have worked this out myself,am i right ?

That is what I do.

Be prepared as i want to use FireFox instead of IE6 soon

Good idea.

Edited by Michael Buckley, 08 October 2005 - 06:09 PM.