Strange issue on Vista, no computer, desktop availabe

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MountainMan10
Posts: 9
Joined: 25 Mar 2009 03:48

Re: Strange issue on Vista, no computer, desktop availabe

Post by MountainMan10 »

I have two computers, a desktop and a notebook. Both are setup as exactly the same as humanly possible. On my desk computer XYplorer displays My documents correctly on D:. On my notebook it does not.
I have multiple boots on my desktop. All setup the same but different OS. XYplorer works on it in Vista and Windows 7.
I have loaded Vista Home Premimum SP1, Vista Ultimate SP1 and Vista Business on my notebook. In all three cases XYplorer will not show My Documents.
I tried a fresh copy of XYplorer on a usb stick. No difference.

buzzword
Posts: 6
Joined: 23 Jan 2009 05:19

Re: Strange issue on Vista, no computer, desktop availabe

Post by buzzword »

In my case on Vista x64 my Desktop is in the default location, but I keep my Documents folder is on a separate drive.

serendipity
Posts: 3360
Joined: 07 May 2007 18:14
Location: NJ/NY

Re: Strange issue on Vista, no computer, desktop availabe

Post by serendipity »

buzzword wrote:
serendipity wrote: So its not XY's fault in this case.
Not entirely true, there are system variables (like %desktop% etc.) that tell programs where these folders reside, precisely so that they don't have to be in the same specific locations on every computer, and also because different version of Windows put these folders in different default locations.
:oops: , sorry i wasn't aware of that. I just read this to enlighten myself. If its viewed alright from explorer but XY shows it wrong then it could be a bug. We have to wait for Admin's comment, but be aware that bugs and wishes will not be fixed as easily as before as he is busy with Dual pane development.

serendipity
Posts: 3360
Joined: 07 May 2007 18:14
Location: NJ/NY

Re: Strange issue on Vista, no computer, desktop availabe

Post by serendipity »

Well, I tested this on my Vista SP1 (32 bit).
Using the app TweakVI, I changed the "My Documents" from root (C:) to another location E: and after restarting XY all is fine, i.e. in the tree i can navigate correctly to that folder and its subfolders are not from XY.
So atleast it cannot be XY because it works for me.
It could be that the changes you are making are not applied to the registry properly, if not XY would recognize it properly.
I am using v7.90.0126.

MountainMan10
Posts: 9
Joined: 25 Mar 2009 03:48

Re: Strange issue on Vista, no computer, desktop availabe

Post by MountainMan10 »

For me it works on one of my computers but not the other. They are set up the same. Obviously XYplorer supports the documents folder being moved. What I was hoping for from this forum was what XYplorer looks at to determine the location. There must be an incorrect setting somewhere on my computer and I am trying to determine what it is. At first I thought it might be SP1 because I had it on one but not the other. But I loaded Vista w/o the service pack on my notebook and the documents folder didn't display as soon as I moved it.

MountainMan10
Posts: 9
Joined: 25 Mar 2009 03:48

Re: Strange issue on Vista, no computer, desktop availabe

Post by MountainMan10 »

I have some more interesting information. I have multiple partitions. C:, D:, E:, F: and G:.
If I put My Documents on C, E, F or G it and the Desktop display correctly in XYplorer. If I put My Documents on D: they do not display in XYplorer. All the partitions are NTFS. All but C: are logical drives. I can find nothing different about D: other than it is the first logical drive in the extended partition.

buzzword
Posts: 6
Joined: 23 Jan 2009 05:19

Re: Strange issue on Vista, no computer, desktop availabe

Post by buzzword »

MountainMan10 wrote:I have some more interesting information. I have multiple partitions. C:, D:, E:, F: and G:.
If I put My Documents on C, E, F or G it and the Desktop display correctly in XYplorer. If I put My Documents on D: they do not display in XYplorer. All the partitions are NTFS. All but C: are logical drives. I can find nothing different about D: other than it is the first logical drive in the extended partition.

I think you're onto something, in my case my Documents folder is on L:, prior to that it was on F: and I had no problem.

MountainMan10
Posts: 9
Joined: 25 Mar 2009 03:48

Re: Strange issue on Vista, no computer, desktop availabe

Post by MountainMan10 »

Funny thing is, on the computer where it works, My Documents is also on D:. There is something about this particular partition, but I can't figure out what.

It keeps getting better. If I move it to D:\Documents, XYplorer is happy. But it doesn't like "D:\My Documents".

I moved My Documents to "D:\Documents" and created a junction "D:\My Documents" with mklink /J and now XYplorer is happy, and so is everything that expects "D:\My Documents". I also used mklink /J to recreate the My Documents junction under C:\Users\myname.

Update: after a reboot XYplorer is once again not showing my documents. Still searching for a fix.

Now when I type in %personal% in the address bar the XYplorer directory is displayed. It was showing my documents before.

MountainMan10
Posts: 9
Joined: 25 Mar 2009 03:48

Re: Strange issue on Vista, no computer, desktop availabe

Post by MountainMan10 »

I have come up with a workaround.

I moved the Documents back to the default location. Then I deleted the C:\Users\...\Documents folder and replaced it with a Junction (mklink /j) that points to D:\My Documents. Now Windows is happy and XYplorer is happy. %desktop%, %desktopreal%, %personal% and %personalreal% all work. The icons are correct for the true documents folder, D:\My Documents, in both XYplorer and Windows Explorer.

Vista wouldn't let me create the Junction first. It won't let you set the location of Documents to a Junction. But it is perfectly happy if you do it after the fact.

admin
Site Admin
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Joined: 22 May 2004 16:48
Location: Win8.1, Win10, Win11, all @100%
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Re: Strange issue on Vista, no computer, desktop availabe

Post by admin »

This is all weird. I'm retrieving the locations of the special folders at XYplorer startup and whenever you use "rebuild tree". There's nothing exotic about the functions I use. It's simply THE standard way to do this. No idea why it would fail with certain locations on drive D: on a certain computer.

MountainMan10
Posts: 9
Joined: 25 Mar 2009 03:48

Re: Strange issue on Vista, no computer, desktop availabe

Post by MountainMan10 »

I figured as much. It is a strange one. I recently installed Windows 7 and XYplorer finds my documents just fine. Only an issue in Vista.

buzzword
Posts: 6
Joined: 23 Jan 2009 05:19

Re: Strange issue on Vista, no computer, desktop availabe

Post by buzzword »

MountainMan10 wrote:I figured as much. It is a strange one. I recently installed Windows 7 and XYplorer finds my documents just fine. Only an issue in Vista.
Same here, I just installed Windows 7 RC and XYplorer works fine. GO figure.

admin
Site Admin
Posts: 66300
Joined: 22 May 2004 16:48
Location: Win8.1, Win10, Win11, all @100%
Contact:

Re: Strange issue on Vista, no computer, desktop availabe

Post by admin »

Well, good to hear! :D

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