Hiding Protected System Files Also Hides the "My"

Jeff Bellune · Post by **Jeff Bellune** » 14 Dec 2007 15:02

I think 45 minutes of searching is enough...I couldn't find another topic that addressed this issue.

To wit: Unchecking View->Show Items->Show System Files and Folders not only makes clutter like Recycler and System Volume Information go away, it also makes My Music, My Pictures and My Videos go away.

No other File Manager that I've tried, including Windows Explorer, does that.

Is this unique to my system? Is there a setting I can change or a UDC I can create that will let me see "My" folders, yet still hide the protected system folders?

This is a show-stopper for me.

EDIT: In case it's significant, "My Documents" is not in its default location. It's on a separate, local drive at the root level. And the My Documents folder itself is not affected - it's only the My Pictures/My Music/My Videos folders that disappear in all lists and in the tree.

Post by **admin** » 14 Dec 2007 16:23

Interesting. Here (XP SP2) those MY-folders have just the readonly-attribute set (which is nonsense enough).

So in Vista they are "system"?

Jeff Bellune · Post by **Jeff Bellune** » 14 Dec 2007 17:07

I'm currently testing on XP SP2 32-bit here. Vista testing starts next week.

XY, DOpus and Windows Explorer (all in detail view) show "S" in the attributes column. XY adds a "D".

-Jeff

Post by **admin** » 14 Dec 2007 17:31

Jeff Bellune wrote:I'm currently testing on XP SP2 32-bit here. Vista testing starts next week.

XY, DOpus and Windows Explorer (all in detail view) show "S" in the attributes column. XY adds a "D".

I'm surprised! It's hard to imagine that your are the only with a "S" here, but then why did nobody ever tell me about vanishing "My"-folders (which surely is not nice).

stumbled...

Gandolf · Post by **Gandolf** » 14 Dec 2007 17:47

No "S" for me either, just an "R" (and the "D" in XY) - XP SP2.

Jeff Bellune · Post by **Jeff Bellune** » 14 Dec 2007 18:09

Hmmm. Are both of your "My Documents" folders in their default locations, i.e., C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents?

Gandolf · Post by **Gandolf** » 14 Dec 2007 18:14

Yep, standard path.

Post by **admin** » 14 Dec 2007 19:20

Gandolf wrote:Yep, standard path.

Same here.

Jeff Bellune · Post by **Jeff Bellune** » 14 Dec 2007 19:50

That may be the cause - I've moved mine to a separate, local hard disk.

Post by **admin** » 14 Dec 2007 19:57

Jeff Bellune wrote:That may be the cause - I've moved mine to a separate, local hard disk.

And you are saying when you hide SYSTEM folders in any other file manager, your MY-folders are still shown?

"MY" is not a file attribute, of course. I'm not aware of a general method to recognize MY-folders. Or maybe this one: they all contain a HIDDEN AND SYSTEM desktop.ini file. But this is not a practical check. It would slow down XY notably!

Jeff Bellune · Post by **Jeff Bellune** » 14 Dec 2007 20:17

admin wrote:
Jeff Bellune wrote:That may be the cause - I've moved mine to a separate, local hard disk.
And you are saying when you hide SYSTEM folders in any other file manager, your MY-folders are still shown?

That is correct.

UPDATE: I used the properties sheet for the Start Menu entry for My Documents to move MyDocs back to its default location. When I did that, the system attribute was removed.

Then I moved My Docs back to its custom location, and the system attribute did not get set.

Then I applied a custom icon package using Stardock's Icon Packager, and the system attribute was reapplied to the My- folders.

I had to use DOpus to clear the system attribute (because the XY help files say that XY can't do that) for the My- folders. Then I discovered that XY *can* change the system attribute! I think the help files need updating...

But just to clarify: *only* XY hid the My- folders when they had the system attribute set *and* system files were hidden.

-Jeff

Post by **admin** » 14 Dec 2007 20:29

Jeff Bellune wrote:Then I discovered that XY *can* change the system attribute! I think the help files need updating...

But just to clarify: *only* XY hid the My- folders when they had the system attribute set *and* system files were hidden.

Thanks for the info. I just updated the help file.

And about the hiding... it appears that XY has a literal interpretation of SYSTEM whereas the others have a more casual one. I currently do not see a way to handle this without losing performance. Hmm, so it looks like lose performance or lose a customer...

nice dilemma. I'll think about it again when another customer threatens to be lost.

Jeff Bellune · Post by **Jeff Bellune** » 14 Dec 2007 21:48

Well, since I was able to remove the system attribute from the My- folders, they don't hide anymore.

I don't expect any adverse affects from removing the system attribute (since the default location on my system and your own My-folders don't have the attribute set), so this workaround may be all that is necessary.

So XY is still under consideration since I can hide my system files and show the My- folders too!

John Bee · Post by **John Bee** » 14 Dec 2007 22:26

[quote="Jeff Bellune"]Well, since I was able to remove the system attribute from the My- folders, they don't hide anymore.

The reason the system attribute was set is that [some] programs that change the folders icon, require system attribute to be set. I think this is a 'Windows' thing.

You know this because they usually put a <desktop.ini> file in the folder. This file contains info about which icon to use for this folder.

I have found out that setting the folder to R read-only also allows for this, so if you want to keep the new folder icon, set the folder to read-only.

JB

Jeff Bellune · Post by **Jeff Bellune** » 15 Dec 2007 00:05

Thanks, JB!

That helps clear up a big part of the mystery.

-Jeff

XYplorer Beta Club

Hiding Protected System Files Also Hides the "My"

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