Solved New AppData folder?

[Winston2001]

Hello,
I am new to the forum. Just found out something which I cannot understand..
I installed Win7 a while ago, and everything has been going smoothly. But now I noticed a new AppData folder in my user folder(on desktop). This folder is normally found inside C drive - user. This seems to be an exact copy of THAT orifinal folder. When this problem occured, start up was a little slow. There was one more newly created folder names 'searches', which was empty. I just deleted it. What should I do with the AppData folder? By the way I am running Win7 SP1.
Thanks for all your help.

 

[ZyanWu]

The usual location for the appData folder is C:\Users\(username)\AppData

If you create a random file (for ex. a new text document) in the AppData folder that you want to delete, does that file also appear in the C:\Users\(username)\AppData folder?

 

[Winston2001]

Yes, it does.

 

[FredeGail]

If you have no computer problems, i'd just leave it alone and hide the folders.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/394-hidden-files-folders-show-hide.html?filter

Your AppDATA folder usually contains Windows Live Essentials data, and stuff like that.
No need to worry.

Best Regards,
FredeGail

 

[ZyanWu]

Just a silly question. Are you sure that the thing on your desktop is not a shortcut?

 

[HammerHead]

Good Question

Just a silly question. Are you sure that the thing on your desktop is not a shortcut?

I also would right click disk select tools and schedule a disk check and then reboot and let the disk check run and then look at the suspect folder to see if it is still there.

 

[Winston2001]

No, it is not a shortcut. Size is 280MB. Inside there are the three folders - Local,LocalLow and Roaming.
I can hide it but why was it created? Again, when the problem first occurred, startup was somewhat slow. Not anymore, though.

 

[ZyanWu]

Yeah, it's a directory symbolic link. You can safely remove it.

If you want to recreate it open a command prompt and use mklink:

Creates a symbolic link.

MKLINK [[/D] | [/H] | [/J]] Link Target

        /D      Creates a directory symbolic link.  Default is a file
                symbolic link.
        /H      Creates a hard link instead of a symbolic link.
        /J      Creates a Directory Junction.
        Link    specifies the new symbolic link name.
        Target  specifies the path (relative or absolute) that the new link
                refers to.

 

[Winston2001]

Yeah, it's a directory symbolic link. You can safely remove it.

If you want to recreate it open a command prompt and use mklink:

Creates a symbolic link.

MKLINK [[/D] | [/H] | [/J]] Link Target

        /D      Creates a directory symbolic link.  Default is a file
                symbolic link.
        /H      Creates a hard link instead of a symbolic link.
        /J      Creates a Directory Junction.
        Link    specifies the new symbolic link name.
        Target  specifies the path (relative or absolute) that the new link
                refers to.

sorry, I didn't quite get it. Would you please explain what I should do?

 

[ZyanWu]

The AppData folder on your Desktop is a directory symbolic link. You can remove it if it bothers you.

If, in the near future, you want to re-create it or create another link to a specific folder you can use mklink.

 

[Winston2001]

I deleted the folder and unfortunately, it caused some damage. Libraries and the Media Player are now missing from the taskbar. Looks like I now need to repair my installation.

 

[ZyanWu]

Just use the Recycle Bin to recover the files you deleted...
This is really confusing.

 

[Winston2001]

Recycle Bin is empty!
Never mind, I will run a repair, and post back. Thanks for all your help. Much appreciated.
The site is very useful. Should have been here before.