User account - Local Settings

pcastric · 02 May 2010

I purchased a new Dell 1764 Win 7 Professional about 2-weeks ago and have been learning how to use Win 7 - I consider myself an old XP guy!

I was in the windows explorer to see who was listed inder the Users directory where I found a directory with my name on it. I double clicked and noted the contents of the directory was the same as in XP. I clicked on the Local Settings directory (I temporarily turned off the "hide protected operating system files" option to see if contents was the same) and got a message that access was denied. I was told by a tech that this was normal in Win 7 in order to stop people from changing options, etc. which could cause problems.

My question is this - was the tech correct by saying it was locked for protection? If the answer is yes, then who can access the directory? (I have system administrator rights.

Pierre

Brink · 02 May 2010

Hello Pierre,

Yes, he was correct. The faded shortcut protected OS folders are actually only "junction points" to the actual folder instead, and are not real folders. They are used for backwards compatibility for older XP type applications that still reference them by default instead of the newer default locations in Vista and Windows 7 now. They redirect the older application to the new Vista and Windows 7 locations instead.

User account - Local Settings-junction_points.jpg

Hope this helps,
Shawn

logicearth · 02 May 2010

Read the links in my signature for more information.

pcastric · 03 May 2010

Thanks everyone for your comments.

Like most people who move up to a new version, I tend to look at all features and to see what has changed or what is new. In this perticular case, functionality of the Local Settings directory is different from privious window versions (went from XP to Win 7 - skipped Vista).

Who was it that said you can't teach an old dog new tricks???

Pierre

Brink · 03 May 2010

You're most welcome Pierre. :)