Weird clone of Documents folder on desktop!

Random Man

New Member
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Hi guys. Got a bit of a tricky one for anyone who fancies a challenge!

I've been fiddling with Win 8.1 to make the explorer more to my liking and I seem to have ended up with a clone of my documents folder called 'My Documents' on my desktop. I have no idea what I did to get it there or why it is called that.

Just to be clear, this isn't the User's Files icon that you can dis/enable by using Personalisation -> Change Desktop Icons.

If I try to delete it, it deletes c:\Users\[username]\Documents. The normal documents folder also exists in that location so it behaves like it's in two places at once. It's definitely not a shortcut. If I right-click on it I get all the same stuff I get when I click on my user documents.

If I go into Explorer -> View -> Options -> Navigation Pane and click Show all Folders I can see it in the Explorer side bar too. It has Desktop as the parent item, containing Homegroup, [username], My Documents, ThisPC, Libraries, Network, Control Panel, Recycle Bin.

The things I've changed have been generally to do with customising the Explorer sidebar, like removing OneDrive and using ThisPC Tweaker to change the folders.

If anyone's got any thoughts on what I must have done to do this, I'd be most grateful as I can't find anything about it online, other than the obvious stuff which doesn't seem to apply here.

Thanks! :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8.1

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    64-bit Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom self built
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K OC'd to 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    OCZ Series Gold OCZZ1000M 1000W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Malwarebyte Anti-Malware Premium
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
Hi. Thanks for having a go! :)

Unfortunately I've tried that. It thinks it's already in the default location.

i.e. My Documents on the desktop has the location c:\Users\[username]\Documents and Documents in my user directory also has the location c:\Users\[username]\Documents.

They both behave as if they are both the same folder but one that exists in two places at once. It's very odd!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8.1
I wonder if it's possible to copy the contents into a new folder, delete both the current Documents and My Documents clone and create a new Documents system folder in c:\Users\[username] ?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8.1
Yes, you could make a backup of the folder and it's contents to another location to be safe.

Your user folders are not like normal folders. They have symbolic links. Because of this, you wouldn't be able to just delete and create a new folder as usual without going through all the steps in Option Two of the tutorial for that folder.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    64-bit Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom self built
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K OC'd to 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    OCZ Series Gold OCZZ1000M 1000W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Malwarebyte Anti-Malware Premium
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
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