Solved All My Documents files and folders showing on my Desktop

[rickhan]

Something is causing all My Documents files and folders to show up on my Desktop (along with what is normally there).
They are not shortcuts.
Properties show that they are actually located in My Desktop folder, but in My Documents, where they belong.

How I got to this state:
When I originally installed Win8Pro, I used sysprep to move Users to D drive, at OOBE.
I tried to reverse this, so I could upgrade to 8.1, but sysprep fails to get me to audit mode.
So I booted into Safe Mode with a new temp admin acct, and copied users back to C drive.
Then I used regedit to point all the profiles back to C drive.
Rebooted. Logged into my main account.
I then used Properties on all my Profile movable folders to move that content back to D.
All well and good until my Desktop fills up with files and folders, that aren't really supposed to display there.
They work the same and point to the same files if I access them normally through my account icon.

I've been looking for copy errors, haven't found anything yet.
Any ideas?

 

[XweAponX]

OOBE is the MS Activator, it should be in the Windows/System32 folder. Was there an OOBE folder on the D drive?

I'll have to read up on Sysprep.

But, you copied your USERS folders right over the new Users folder right? All I can say about that, is that you should not have moved certain files that are in the root Users folder, like the DAT files.

I'll have to look up a old post to confirm that.

Ok, here is what I found:

http://www.eightforums.com/user-accounts-family-safety/27377-system-loads-temporary-profile.html

My system was loading a Temporary Profile. I had to make a new account and move all of my USER files to a new user account.

You CANNOT copy the NTUSER.DAT files, but you can copy every single other file and folder.

The NTUSER.DAT file that was in there, probably fouled up the copy and shunted all of the Docs into the Desktop Folder.

 

[rickhan]

You misunderstand. You use sysprep to break into audit mode at original startup (OOBE).
You then give it an xml file telling it that the original copy of Users is on D:\users. One on C: never gets created. The reboot again into OOBE, and finish logging into Windows for the 1st time.

Works fine until trying to upgrade to 8.1 -- get error msg that moving Users is not supported.
And for some reason I can't get back into audit mode. So I manually moved Users back to C: ( real painful, as you also have to search and edit the entire registry).

 

[XweAponX]

Ah, I see, thats because USERS a protected Folder. Maybe the process would have worked had it been done in an Admin Mode.

So I manually moved Users back to C: ( real painful, as you also have to search and edit the entire registry).

But the same thing I said applies, you said you moved your Users folders manually. You can't move *all* of the files from the root of the USERS folder, you cannot copy the NTUSER.DAT files. If you did, that may have caused the Documents to get shunted to the wrong folder.

 

[rickhan]

Ah, I see, thats because USERS a protected Folder. Maybe the process would have worked had it been done in an Admin Mode.

You are clueless. You don't even have an idea as to my problem. I was in Admin to do any of this.

Turns out my Profile got corrupted.
Too many dev apps installed, plus a lot of other stuff. Makes moving profiles of this complexity difficult if not impossible. Simple profiles move and copy easily. Had no problems with those.
Had to make a new profile. I managed to copy all my normal data files over to the new profile, but lost a lot under AppData.

 

[caperjack]

You are clueless. You don't even have an idea as to my problem. .

i can see the smoke from here

 

[XweAponX]

Ah, I see, thats because USERS a protected Folder. Maybe the process would have worked had it been done in an Admin Mode.

You are clueless. You don't even have an idea as to my problem. I was in Admin to do any of this.

Turns out my Profile got corrupted.
Too many dev apps installed, plus a lot of other stuff. Makes moving profiles of this complexity difficult if not impossible. Simple profiles move and copy easily. Had no problems with those.
Had to make a new profile. I managed to copy all my normal data files over to the new profile, but lost a lot under AppData.

We don't allow posturing in these forums, the last guy who did it is not here anymore.

I just install and use windows, I have no idea what complicated, introverted and self indulgent programming you are trying to do. THIS is not the forum for that kind of stuff (Because this is General, there are forums here for what you were doing), in here, we're just trying to HELP people get their systems running.

If your profile got corrupted, it would not have loaded and you would have gotten "Temporary Profile" loaded. This eventually would have happened had you kept booting to that profile. The solution is what you did, make a new profile and move your corrupted profile files, SANS the NTUSER.DAT file, into the new User Folder. I have no idea if moving the NTUSER.DAT would cause your docs to end up on the desktop, it was a guess, eh?

Seems I was helpful after all. because you used the solution I found for Temp Profiles. You are Welcome.

 

[XweAponX]

You know what, *I* Apologize. Obviously, I've never tried to install an OS with "Sysprep", so I have no idea how that works. All I know is what Windows 8 Does when certain issues arise.

So I'm not qualified to comment on using Sysprep, but I am considerably qualified in regard to moving my entire Users folder structure over and I've done it several times and have not lost a single program. When I see things occurring I have never seen, like for instance, Documents showing up on the Desktop (or rather in the Desktop Folder, which is where they got moved to), then all I can do is make guesses as to how that happened.

So now we know, if a corrupt profile gets loaded and does not cause a Temp Profile to load, then the files becoming scattered like this could be the result of that. It doesn't matter exactly what caused this, the solution's is the same: Copy the corrupted user account to another place on the drive, make a new Local User account, then move the Old User files to the new account.

Whenever I have done this, I have always saved the original User Folders until I was sure that the new User Account was working properly. So it was good that the original folder was saved.

I'm going to bookmark this so I'll know how to handle the corrupted account should I ever see this issue myself, and believe me, I WILL.

 

[rickhan]

I did get semi functional. My new profile loads. Still have all my data. 8.1 is now on the system.
However, the Metro side is half hosed.
I managed to get the Store working again, by reloading the Store manifest (using a PS script), then running wsreset.exe.
Now all my Store apps work (repaired or reloaded), but none of the default Metro apps or Settings launch -- they never get past the Splash screen.
I will never move the Users (or any other OS folder) again. In the Properties of Documents/Music/etc , there is a 'Location' tab that allows you to move your folders to another drive. And it is supported. That is the way to do it from here on out.

Spent 20+ hours working on this since Fri evening, too tired to even think straight.

 

[XweAponX]

On the 2 machines I moved the entire Users folder, I had no problem with any of the Metro apps. The Metro apps are actually installed into "Program Files' but there are other files for them in the User folder. The links to the actual Start Screen items are stored HERE:

C:\Users\(User Name)\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Application Shortcuts

Whatever is on your Start Screen should be there. Try running the tiles from the list of "all apps" rather than from the Start Screen, if we can get them started from there, then it is the Shortcuts that are bad and you can rebuild them. This is just a guess though.

The Store apps are only half of the equation, the other side of which are the Built In Apps. Maybe, removing the tiles and re-making them? See if any of the MS apps start from "All Apps"- Also, maybe there is a way to re-download them.

I have a program that can rebuild the store apps but it is a paid program, it can clean out the store cache but I'm not allowed to offer it cos it is paid.

Brink made a whole Tutorial about this, check here:

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/21051-apps-tiles-not-working-responding-fix-windows-8-a.html

 

[rickhan]

All the Store Apps work fine now, after reloading the Store manifest using a PowerShell script.
Most of the Default Metro Apps are missing, even from the All Apps section. The several that are left, like Settings, simply launch to the splash screen and freeze.
All the folder and registry permissions look OK, I checked each one.
So its just the Inbox Metro Apps that are still hosed, rest work fine.
Other people with this issue, so its being investigated. I hope there is a solution short of flattening and starting over.

 

[rickhan]

OK, if I go into Program FIles\WIndowsApps, take ownership, then reload the manifests for all the unworking Inbox apps, they work!.
Well, OK, the one I tried did. Yay!!!!
powershell
-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register
$EnvrogramFiles\WindowsApps\Microsoft.BingFinance_3.0.1.203_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\AppxManifest.xml

 

[XweAponX]

Good, I'll bookmark this and save the script in case anyone else has this problem.