Is it finally time to nuke and repave?

I have a weird thing going on with my computer.

It's running Vista and now when I go to Windows Explorer (AKA "Computer") quite a few of the directories icons have the little crooked arrow icon (looks like the icon designating a "shortcut") superimposed on them.

I'm pretty sure it has something to do with permissions, because when I click on the directory I get a message like C:\Documents and Settings is not available. Access is denied..

Directories with this problem include:

C:\Documents & Settings
C:\Users\All Users\Application Data
C:\Users\All Users\Desktop
C:\Users\All Users Documents
C:\Users\All Users\Favorites
C:\Users\All Users\Start Menu
C:\Users\Default User
C:\Users\Doug\Application Data
C:\Users\Doug\Cookies
C:\Users\Doug\Local Settings
C:\Users\Doug\My Documents
C:\Users\Doug\NetHood
C:\Users\Doug\PrintHood
C:\Users\Doug\Recent
C:\Users\Doug\Send To
C:\Users\Doug\Start Menu
C:\Users\Doug\Templates

Can anybody tell me what is going on here, and if it is fixable, and how to fix it if it is? I'm really starting to yearn for the good old days of Windows 3.1, or maybe even a C:> prompt.

tanstaafl.

Most of the directories you listed don't exist in those locations any longer. They were either deleted or changed to be a junction to Users instead in Vista. The junctions aren't normally visible either.

Did you install an old program recently?

That's normal with Vista when you try to browse from the root of C. Only if you follow the actual "My documents" link does it work.

I don't know why they did it that way. I think I got around it by deliberately changing the permissions on those folders to what I wanted.

http://www.svrops.com/svrops/articles/jpoints.htm

That explains a lot! Thank you.

I guess what it is saying is that when tech support told me to do the following:

Open "Computer". In the address bar at the top, type the following:

C:\Program Files\ and Delete the "OverDrive Media Console" folder.

C:\Users\[username]\Application Data\OverDrive and Delete the "Media Console" folder.

C:\Users\[username]\Documents\ and Delete the "My Media" folder.

they really meant for me to follow the junction point(s) to C:\Users\[Doug]\AppData\Roaming\Overdrive\Media Console.

Of course. How could I have been so stupid. I mean, it's perfectly obvious, isn't it?

Well, the program still doesn't run (Unable to detect the OMC detect object used to get version information. (Invalid class string)) so I guess I'll hit them up again, send them the link to the Junction Point explanation that Roger gave me, and see if by some miracle they can help.

tanstaafl.

To be fair, I'm guessing that their support people still haven't quite got their heads around these changes in Windows. I know that I still talk about "C:\Documents and Settings\wherever; Oh, you're on Vista. Let me look up the new location for that"