my documents

[tonewill]

Hello,

I cannot get an icon to "my documents" on my desktop or start-menu. I should tell you that I've seen the usual answers like: go to customise desktop, check the "my documents" checkbox and: go to customise start menu, advanced and check the checkbox etc. The problem with this is that the "my documents" checkbox is greyed-out under customise desktop and just not there at all under customise start menu. The my documents folder exists under document and settings > username and the ini file within it is correct. I'm at a loss and so am posting here to see if anyone knowledgeable can help me with this.

EDIT: forgot to put XP SP3 in the title.

Thanks for any help.

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

Welcome to the Windows Forum.

The easiest way to customize your desktop is by using Tweak UI; one of the Microsoft PowerToys.

[tonewill]

Welcome to the Windows Forum.

Thanks.

The easiest way to customize your desktop is by using Tweak UI; one of the Microsoft PowerToys.

Okay, I think a picture will explain the problem better than words can:

In case it helps diagnose this, "my documents" is also missing from the places bar on the 'open file' dialog, and no, there are no customisations to the places bar.

Appreciate any help if anyone has the knowledge.

[Hb_Kai]

Have you removed or renamed the My Documents folder to anything?

It probably won't resolve the issue but it's a possibility.

[Boris]

Not 100% sure, but you could download and double click this Registry Fix ???

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]

"NoSMMyDocs"=dword:00000000

"ClearRecentDocsOnExit"=dword:00000000

"NoRecentDocsMenu"=dword:00000000

"NoRecentDocsHistory"=dword:00000000

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits...mydocuments.reg

from Kellys Korner

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

See Line 55

[tonewill]

Have you removed or renamed the My Documents folder to anything?

It probably won't resolve the issue but it's a possibility.

A long time ago I had enough of the so called "my documents" becoming software vendors "settings dump" and decided to use my own documents folder at the root of my D drive and get rid of all the "my documents" links and just forget about it.

However, as the original location is so often selected by default by software open/save dialogs and I have to navigate to my own location, I've given in and just want to go back to the standard location. I can't remember or find out what I did, if anything, to disable it so much that it's greyed-out in the "customize desktop" dialogue.

Boris, NoSMMyDocs (no start menu my documents) with a value of 0, or the value removed altogether, restores the link in the start menu. I found this site yesterday while searching and corrected this. The others values are just for recent documents. Thanks though.

[Hb_Kai]

If you change the path in the following key, that is where the "My Documents" will folder exist. The directory itself does not have to be named "My Documents."

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User shell

folders\Personal

[tonewill]

Thanks Hb_Kai, that's not the problem here though.

[Hb_Kai]

What about permission settings or a group policy setting on the My Documents folder?

I just found this, try seeing if this works:

To see if this Group Policy setting is applied, run Gpresult.exe in verbose mode on the client computer. Look at the output of this tool to see if the following registry setting is applied:

KeyName: Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum

ValueName: {450D8FBA-AD25-11D0-98A8-0800361B1103}

ValueType: REG_DWORD

Value: 0x00000001

If this is present, the Hide My Documents folder on the Desktop Group Policy setting is enabled.

[tonewill]

Hb_Kai, thanks so much for persisting with me on this problem, that was the answer! I really didn't think I was going to sort this one out without a fresh install which I wanted to avoid.

Thanks again.

[Hb_Kai]

You're welcome. Glad you got it fixed. :)