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My user folder is hidden

Anonymous
2023-08-14T08:59:10+00:00

I just got a new PC (well it's an old second hand one from a friend) and have been setting things up. They formatted the drives and reinstalled windows. I noticed that when I was trying to create desktop shortcuts for games using steam, the shortcuts just appeared as blank pages and they didn't work.

When I looked into it I found out that my user folder, which has my desktop folder, does not seem to be visible in the C:\Users\ folder. When I use %userprofile% it sends me to my user profile and says that the path is C:\Users\splat but if I just look at the users folder the only ones I can see are Public and Default (Default is hidden, but when I got to View and tick show hidden items it's visible).

Any idea what's going on here?

EDIT: When I initially set up a profile on first start up I signed into a pre-existing microsoft account that I used with my old PC. Not sure if that's relevant but maybe.

EDIT 2: I just had a thought. I do have working desktop shortcuts from non steam applications. Some of them seem to be point to C:\Users\Public\Public Desktop which is a file path that is visible in the users folder. Other than the shortcuts steam creates for games all the desktop shortcuts work. Both the ones pointing to C:\Users\Public\Public Desktop and the ones pointing to C:\Users\splat\Desktop including the shortcut for steam (just the games are broken). The broken steam game shortcuts Point to C:\Users\splat\Desktop.

Additionally I tried to get steam to launch on start-up but it didn't work. When I got to settings, apps - startup Steam is toggles as on however the steam logo is missing and the impact comes up as "Not measured" and steam doesn't launch of startup.

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

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  1. Neil D 32,835 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2023-08-14T09:36:35+00:00

    So the first thing to do is to make the new local account to see if the user folder is created as expected and visible.

    Create a local user or administrator account in Windows - Microsoft Support be sure to create the new account with administrator privileges and not just a Standard account.

    When you have signed in to the new account (I suggest signing out the old account and in the new one) be sure it is accessing everything and folders are visible in File Explorer.

    Depending what everything is you have downloaded and where you saved it you should be able to copy files to the new account default folders, Documents, Pictures, Downloads etc.

    Open File Explorer and expand This PC > C:\ select the Users folder. You should see the new account folder profile name. If you create an account called Face then the folder should be C:\Users\Face. See if the old account folder is visible in the new account. You may not have access to the original user folder but you should have the option to allow you access.

    Just to check what is the current version and build of Widows 10, type winver in Search and select the top result.

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  1. Neil D 32,835 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2023-08-16T15:10:06+00:00

    The link I gave details setting up a new local account. That is the way to go to see if it fixes anything.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-08-15T17:48:34+00:00

    If I try to make another account it asks me for an email/phone number for the account. But my email and phone number are already being used for my current account. I can log in on my current account as a local user instead of as a microsoft account but that doesn't change anything.

    Windows version is Version 22H2 (OS Build 19045.3324)

    Just in case you missed them, I added some EDITS yesterday with some other info I found.

    Thanks for the help so far.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-08-14T09:12:40+00:00

    Currently it's using a Microsoft account not a local account. I could reset the PC, but downloading everything again would be a bit of a pain. Not the end of the world though. My concern is that the same thing might happen because the PC was effectively reset when I first got it.

    Using a local account would make sense. Would I be able to just move everything over?

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  4. Neil D 32,835 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2023-08-14T09:06:03+00:00

    Not knowing how it may have been setup it could be best to reset Windows 10 and start again. If you are able to remove everything then you can start again by creating the account again. Settings > Update and security > Recovery > Reset this PC.

    Are you using a local account or a Microsoft account.

    Another option would be to create another local account and use that instead but it would have to be a different name to the current one. Settings > Accounts

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