"Bob" <rspring@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:1184704915.603024.233660@x35g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
> My Documents folders appear on the Desktop, My Computer / X's
> Documents, and My Computer / Local Disk / Documents and Settings/ X /
> My Documents, where X is my name. Why three locations? Are they
> supposed to be identical (I don't think they always are)? Can't I
> delete two of them as duplicates?
> Thanks.
There's only one My Documents folder per account, unless you deliberately
created new ones in other locations.
The location of the actual folder is, by default, c:\documents and
settings\<account name>\My Documents.
If you're logged into another account, other user's My Documents folders
will appear under the name "<Other User Name's > Documents".
What you see on the desktop and in My Computer are shortcuts - references to
the actual My Documents folder.
They aren't copies or duplicates, they are simply references to the one and
only copy. They take up only a few bytes and should not be deleted.
You can verify this by going to the folder in Explorer, and making a marker
file - say, "count_this.txt". Then, search the system for it. You'll
find one copy.
If you don't want to see it on the desktop, choose Start, right-click on My
Documents, and remove the checkmark next to "show on desktop".
One thing you generally don't want to realize is that in trying to save a
very small amount of space, you deleted your data.
HTH
-pk