Windows 7 2 users both see 2 'My Documents'

scorer

New Member
Joined
Aug 29, 2012
Hi,

I have 2 users defined to my W7 computer, lets say Jack (administrator) and Jill (normal user). Both users have had their "My Documents" moved to a second disk drive E: as "Jack's Documents" and "Jill's Documents".

Recently (I first noticed it on 26th August) both users started to see two "My Documents" folders on the E: drive in Windows Explorer. One contains Jack's files and folders, the other Jill's files and folders. I'm sure (but have no proof) that Jack used to see "My Documents" and "Jill's Documents", and Jill used to see "My Documents" and "Jack's Documents".

I've searched for information about this problem but can only find examples for duplicate "My Documents" folders for a single user.

Can anyone help?
Thanks
 
The easy way is to right click on the folder, choose properties, go to security, and change permissions. Of course, you need to be Administrator to do it.
 
The easy way is to right click on the folder, choose properties, go to security, and change permissions. Of course, you need to be Administrator to do it.
Thanks, but with my limited experience of messing about with security I'm afraid you'll need to be more specific.

I've looked at security, but the only way (I think) to stop Jill seeing "Jack's Documents" is to set up Deny options on "Jack's Documents" which (the warning message suggests) may prevent Jack seeing the folder as it will override his Allow options.

And wouldn't Jack (as Administrator) still see 2 "My Documents" rather than the preferred "My Documents" plus "Jill's Documents"?
 
Roughly, the Administrator [Jack] is always capable of seeing everything. It's the business of an administrator. Only secondary users can be limited. The administrator account is needed, since there has to be someone who can control it all. The administrator is the care taker, provider and healer. When something goes wrong, that's the one to call.
 
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It turns out that it's because there are desktop.ini files in the 2 folders. Delete those and they revert to "Jack's Documents" and "Jill's Documents" in the Explorer listing.

(I found this on the Ars Technica forum when I was looking to see why Jill can see and update the contents of "Jack's Documents" - but that's a different issue!)

Thanks for your help.
 
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