Windows Server 2003 File and Print server on local LAN. (This is a large corporate WAN). Windows 7 Pro - 32 bit Enterprise Ed. workstations All the latest patches are in place. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Each workstation user has a folder residing on the Server to store documents. When I MOVE the LOCATION of the MY DOCUEMENTS folder to the mapped drive location, the folder on the server is frequently renamed to MY DOCUMENTS. This causes confusion because the server ends up with multiple folders with the same name. Example. Drive x is mapped to the share folder "OFFICE", within this folder are several user folders: x:\smith x:\jones etc. when I change the location to X:\ and select folder \smith the folder name on the server can be changed from \smith to \My Documents. If I log into the server and view the folders, I find that SEVERAL users folders have been renamed to \My Documents. I'm then forced to RESTORE the folder location, rename the \My Documents folder back to \Smith, and try again. Adding to the frustration is this does not happen every time, but often enough to be a real problem. Resetting the location and trying again (sometimes two or three times) seems to solve the problem, but what a time burner. Any suggestions??? TIA

Yeah. Create another folder inside the \smith etc. folders and set that one to the user's My Documents folder. That way you'd have \smith\My Documents, \jones\My Documents, etc. If the user name is the same as the folder name you could use "\\servername\office\%username%\My Documents". Nice and neat.

Thanks for the recommendation. Sadly the users need access to ALL the files within the folder, not just a new subfolder. My question has more to do with WHY Win7 would occassionally rename the user's folder on the server, and how to prevent this from happening?

Hi, When you redirect the Documents folder on a Windows 7-based computer to a network share, the folder name unexpectedly changes back to Documents. This behavior was firstly observed in Windows Vista and still not fixed in Windows 7. I would like to share the following blog with you, please refer to it. http://blogs.technet.com/b/asiasupp/archive/2010/12/14/windows-7-folder-redirection-rename-the-home-folder-in-quot-my-documents-quot.aspx Thank you for understanding. Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Thanks for the links. Guess I'll have to wait for Microsoft to publish a Hot Fix.

This happened to me. I believe I did what Bob mentioned above. Then I manually renamed all the users folders. Luckily I only had about 30 to do.

Symptom: When a user logs in to a Windows 7 computer, and the home folder exists on a network share, the folder is renamed to My Documents instead of the users name. When browsing the home folder with windows 7, a filename column can be added to view the proper name of the folder. However, in an environment with both XP and Wimdows 7, XP does not have the ability to add the filename column to explorer. (Note: This article assumes you are familiar with editing the registry, and doing registry imports from a file. As always, backup your registry before editing. ) Cause: When a user with a home folder redirected to a network share logs in to a Windows 7 machine, windows 7 creates a desktop.ini file in the user home folder. The desktop.ini contains the line: LocalizedResourceName=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-21770 The line causes the folder to appear with the name My documents. The entire desktop.ini contents: [.ShellClassInfo] LocalizedResourceName=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-21770 IconResource=%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-112 IconFile=%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll IconIndex=-235 Soultion: To view the folders with the original name in Windows XP: Changing the desktop.ini to reflect %filename% makes XP see the home folder as the file name, just like Windows 7 does when you add the filename column. (Note, the icon changes in XP, so at least you can tell when someone has logged into windows 7). Instead of: LocalizedResourceName=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-21770 Change the desktop.ini file to reflect %filename%: LocalizedResourceName=@%filename% [.ShellClassInfo] LocalizedResourceName=@%filename% IconResource=%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-112 IconFile=%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll IconIndex=-235 This can be set in the registry in the following key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{FDD39AD0-238F-46AF-ADB4-6C85480369C7}] so when Windows 7 creates the desktop.ini file, it incorporates this setting. The regfile to change it is: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{FDD39AD0-238F-46AF-ADB4-6C85480369C7}] "LocalizedName"=hex(2):40,00,25,00,66,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,6e,00,61,00,6d,00,\ 65,00,25,00,00,00 Setting PreCreate value to 0 in the same registry key stops the desktop.ini file creation altogether! I searched the registry to find the value, LocalizedResourceName=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-21770 to determine which key was used to create the desktop ini. Then since Windows 7 can add the column filename in explorer, I thought I would try %filname% Note: I ran a script to delete all the existing desktop.ini files, then applied the reg hack. Scott Networking: It's not just a job, it's an OBSSESION! Networking: It's not just a job, it's an OBSSESION!