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Why does Windows 10 change a folder name to Documents?

Anonymous
2020-03-25T14:36:07+00:00

I recently decided to move my own documents out of the folder called Documents (which I think of as "My Documents") and I created a separate folder I called MyDocs which is under Documents. I did this because many tools are now adding their own folders to Documents and it is getting messy. I want to keep my actual files away from stuff that the tools do so I can manage it properly. (Recently I have had folders appear for Adobe, Office, Garmin, SQL Server, TurboTax, and Zoom.)

When I look at the folder listing, MyDocs sometimes shows up named correctly and other times as Documents. It is confusing and error prone to have 2 folders that Windows calls Documents.  Should I pick a different name that doesn't have "My" in it? It would be useful to understand why this happens and what the rules are.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Files, folders, and storage

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Anonymous
2020-03-25T16:15:09+00:00

Most likely, when you copied your files, you also copied the desktop.ini file. This file contains the custom icon & languge-specific display name information used by system folders or any folder that's had a custom icon set.

So, in your MyDocs folder, Shift+right-click in the background and select Open PowerShell window here. Then copy & paste the following:

ri desktop.ini -force

(gi .).attributes -= 'ReadOnly'

The other possibility is that when moving, you inadvertendly made your MyDocs folder a system folder. To check, copy & psaate each of the following (one at a time) into the Address bar of Explorer to verify they still open the Documents folder:

shell:personal

shell:local documents

If either of those opens your MyDocs folder, you need to edit the path(s) found under:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

Keith

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Anonymous
2020-03-25T17:41:16+00:00

I tried your number one (even though I didn't really understand what it did). It seems that the name has now returned and hopefully will stay.

Curiously when I did a search for the desktop.ini file, I found many copies on my c-drive but none on the d-drive where these folders are. I do show hidden files; is there a level of hidden that is even more hidden that I am not seeing? Because I don't see any desktop.ini in the Documents folder.

Yes, the setting labeled "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)" has to be unchecked:

You may not see one in Docuemts because you moved it to MyDocs & then deleted with the PowerShell command (ri = Remove-Item).

Keith

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-03-25T17:06:34+00:00

    I tried your number one (even though I didn't really understand what it did). It seems that the name has now returned and hopefully will stay.

    Curiously when I did a search for the desktop.ini file, I found many copies on my c-drive but none on the d-drive where these folders are. I do show hidden files; is there a level of hidden that is even more hidden that I am not seeing? Because I don't see any desktop.ini in the Documents folder.

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