Multiple Vista Desktops

Hello, I hope someone can help.

My neighbour's Vista machine is in a mess and I am trying to help.

The problem is that he has many many desktop folders. Under his user folder
he has a Desktop folder. Click on that and there's a folder called Desktop.
Click on that and another. This goes on and on for perhaps 30+ times.
Worse there is another called Desktop1, with a nested array of 'Desktop'
folders below. Worse still Windows Vista won't let you delete any of these
because their filenames are too long. It won't let you move their location
either to condense/combine them for the same reason.

I don't know when the problem started or why.

Any ideas how to extract him from this mess?

Thanks

samaritan michael

On Mar 14, 8:49*am, "m1234" <m1...@free.fr> wrote:
> Hello, I hope someone can help.
>
> My neighbour's Vista machine is in a mess and I am trying to help.
>
> The problem is that he has many many desktop folders. *Under his user folder
> he has a Desktop folder. *Click on that and there's a folder called Desktop.
> Click on that and another. *This goes on and on for perhaps 30+ times.
> Worse there is another called Desktop1, with a nested array of 'Desktop'
> folders below. *Worse still Windows Vista won't let you delete any of these
> because their filenames are too long. *It won't let you move their location
> either to condense/combine them for the same reason.
>
> I don't know when the problem started or why.
>
> Any ideas how to extract him from this mess?
>
> Thanks
>
> samaritan michael

He has been making a new folder ON his desktop each time & then adding
it to the original folder thus using the same name again and again.
Looks like you need to extract the contents of each folder & pasting
to another folder with all other contents. Good luck.
:-)PS. Reading this back it sounds really "Irish".....no disrespect to
the Paddies. :-)

thanks Sandy

the problem is that Windows won't allow anyone to move or delete the files.
Always it says that the filenames are two long.

I've tried setting up a new account and trying to delete the old account but
that just leaves all these desktop files in place (there are 82 levels!).

Anyone else some ideas?

Thanks


"sandy58" <> a écrit dans le message de
news:83ac6769-0bef-4e1c-8cab-...
On Mar 14, 8:49 am, "m1234" <m1...@free.fr> wrote:
> Hello, I hope someone can help.
>
> My neighbour's Vista machine is in a mess and I am trying to help.
>
> The problem is that he has many many desktop folders. Under his user
> folder
> he has a Desktop folder. Click on that and there's a folder called
> Desktop.
> Click on that and another. This goes on and on for perhaps 30+ times.
> Worse there is another called Desktop1, with a nested array of 'Desktop'
> folders below. Worse still Windows Vista won't let you delete any of these
> because their filenames are too long. It won't let you move their location
> either to condense/combine them for the same reason.
>
> I don't know when the problem started or why.
>
> Any ideas how to extract him from this mess?
>
> Thanks
>
> samaritan michael

He has been making a new folder ON his desktop each time & then adding
it to the original folder thus using the same name again and again.
Looks like you need to extract the contents of each folder & pasting
to another folder with all other contents. Good luck.
:-)PS. Reading this back it sounds really "Irish".....no disrespect to
the Paddies. :-)

"m1234" <> wrote in
news::

> thanks Sandy
>
> the problem is that Windows won't allow anyone to move or delete the
> files. Always it says that the filenames are two long.
>
> I've tried setting up a new account and trying to delete the old
> account but that just leaves all these desktop files in place (there
> are 82 levels!).
>
> Anyone else some ideas?

Have you tried renaming the folders you want to delete, starting at the
earliest one, to a 1 letter name ?

IIRC the MAX_PATH is like 260 characters.

Or, going to a command prompt and using dir/x to get the files/folders
real 8.3 names and delete using short file names ? (The 8.3 filenames are
shown in the second column from the right.)


Regards,

DanS






>
> Thanks
>
>
> "sandy58" <> a écrit dans le message de
> news:83ac6769-0bef-4e1c-8cab-..
> . On Mar 14, 8:49 am, "m1234" <m1...@free.fr> wrote:
>> Hello, I hope someone can help.
>>
>> My neighbour's Vista machine is in a mess and I am trying to help.
>>
>> The problem is that he has many many desktop folders. Under his user
>> folder
>> he has a Desktop folder. Click on that and there's a folder called
>> Desktop.
>> Click on that and another. This goes on and on for perhaps 30+ times.
>> Worse there is another called Desktop1, with a nested array of
>> 'Desktop' folders below. Worse still Windows Vista won't let you
>> delete any of these because their filenames are too long. It won't
>> let you move their location either to condense/combine them for the
>> same reason.
>>
>> I don't know when the problem started or why.
>>
>> Any ideas how to extract him from this mess?
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> samaritan michael
>
> He has been making a new folder ON his desktop each time & then adding
> it to the original folder thus using the same name again and again.
> Looks like you need to extract the contents of each folder & pasting
> to another folder with all other contents. Good luck.
>:-)PS. Reading this back it sounds really "Irish".....no disrespect to
> the Paddies. :-)
>
>

On Sat, 14 Mar 2009 09:49:48 +0100, "m1234" <> wrote:

>Hello, I hope someone can help.
>
>My neighbour's Vista machine is in a mess and I am trying to help.
>
>The problem is that he has many many desktop folders. Under his user folder
>he has a Desktop folder. Click on that and there's a folder called Desktop.
>Click on that and another. This goes on and on for perhaps 30+ times.
>Worse there is another called Desktop1, with a nested array of 'Desktop'
>folders below. Worse still Windows Vista won't let you delete any of these
>because their filenames are too long. It won't let you move their location
>either to condense/combine them for the same reason.
>
>I don't know when the problem started or why.
>
>Any ideas how to extract him from this mess?
>
>Thanks
>
>samaritan michael
>

Try C:\users\name\desktop and then try to delete .

Dan

what a great idea. Thank you. Changed folder names and it allowed me
access.

After several hours on my neighbour's computer problems solved (this was
just one problem!)

Thanks again


DanS" <> a écrit dans le message
de news:Xns9BCE656B71C1Fthisnthatroadrunnern@85.214.1 05.209...
> "m1234" <> wrote in
> news::
>
>> thanks Sandy
>>
>> the problem is that Windows won't allow anyone to move or delete the
>> files. Always it says that the filenames are two long.
>>
>> I've tried setting up a new account and trying to delete the old
>> account but that just leaves all these desktop files in place (there
>> are 82 levels!).
>>
>> Anyone else some ideas?
>
> Have you tried renaming the folders you want to delete, starting at the
> earliest one, to a 1 letter name ?
>
> IIRC the MAX_PATH is like 260 characters.
>
> Or, going to a command prompt and using dir/x to get the files/folders
> real 8.3 names and delete using short file names ? (The 8.3 filenames are
> shown in the second column from the right.)
>
>
> Regards,
>
> DanS
>
>
>
>
>
>
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>>
>> "sandy58" <> a écrit dans le message de
>> news:83ac6769-0bef-4e1c-8cab-..
>> . On Mar 14, 8:49 am, "m1234" <m1...@free.fr> wrote:
>>> Hello, I hope someone can help.
>>>
>>> My neighbour's Vista machine is in a mess and I am trying to help.
>>>
>>> The problem is that he has many many desktop folders. Under his user
>>> folder
>>> he has a Desktop folder. Click on that and there's a folder called
>>> Desktop.
>>> Click on that and another. This goes on and on for perhaps 30+ times.
>>> Worse there is another called Desktop1, with a nested array of
>>> 'Desktop' folders below. Worse still Windows Vista won't let you
>>> delete any of these because their filenames are too long. It won't
>>> let you move their location either to condense/combine them for the
>>> same reason.
>>>
>>> I don't know when the problem started or why.
>>>
>>> Any ideas how to extract him from this mess?
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>>
>>> samaritan michael
>>
>> He has been making a new folder ON his desktop each time & then adding
>> it to the original folder thus using the same name again and again.
>> Looks like you need to extract the contents of each folder & pasting
>> to another folder with all other contents. Good luck.
>>:-)PS. Reading this back it sounds really "Irish".....no disrespect to
>> the Paddies. :-)
>>
>>
>

If you run into this problem again..... which I have many times
And you don't want to delete but move and straighten out the dee
folder problems...

What you can do, is map drive letters to the deep levels, this wil
stop the folder too deep errors and you will then be able to split an
move files/folders as needed

--
Tepid

Hi Tepid,

As I have said earlier, I fixed the problem by following Dan's suggestion of
renaming each of the multiple Desktop folders into a single letter starting
from the top. These then allowed me to combine or delete them.

But have you any idea what might have caused 80 nested levels of desktop in
the first place?

Michael


"Tepid" <> a écrit dans le message de
news:...
>
> If you run into this problem again..... which I have many times.
> And you don't want to delete but move and straighten out the deep
> folder problems....
>
> What you can do, is map drive letters to the deep levels, this will
> stop the folder too deep errors and you will then be able to split and
> move files/folders as needed.
>
>
> --
> Tepid

"m1234" <> wrote in
news:#hbR#:

> Dan
>
> what a great idea.

Wasn't my idea.....that solution was offered to someone here a week
or two ago that had the same problem.

But your welcome anyway.

Regards,

DanS






> Thank you. Changed folder names and it allowed me
> access.
>
> After several hours on my neighbour's computer problems solved (this
> was just one problem!)
>
> Thanks again
>
>
> DanS" <> a écrit dans le
> message de news:Xns9BCE656B71C1Fthisnthatroadrunnern@85.214.1 05.209...
>> "m1234" <> wrote in
>> news::
>>
>>> thanks Sandy
>>>
>>> the problem is that Windows won't allow anyone to move or delete the
>>> files. Always it says that the filenames are two long.
>>>
>>> I've tried setting up a new account and trying to delete the old
>>> account but that just leaves all these desktop files in place (there
>>> are 82 levels!).
>>>
>>> Anyone else some ideas?
>>
>> Have you tried renaming the folders you want to delete, starting at
>> the earliest one, to a 1 letter name ?
>>
>> IIRC the MAX_PATH is like 260 characters.
>>
>> Or, going to a command prompt and using dir/x to get the
>> files/folders real 8.3 names and delete using short file names ? (The
>> 8.3 filenames are shown in the second column from the right.)
>>
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> DanS
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>>
>>>
>>> "sandy58" <> a écrit dans le message de
>>> news:83ac6769-0bef-4e1c-8cab-
>>> .. . On Mar 14, 8:49 am, "m1234" <m1...@free.fr> wrote:
>>>> Hello, I hope someone can help.
>>>>
>>>> My neighbour's Vista machine is in a mess and I am trying to help.
>>>>
>>>> The problem is that he has many many desktop folders. Under his
>>>> user folder
>>>> he has a Desktop folder. Click on that and there's a folder called
>>>> Desktop.
>>>> Click on that and another. This goes on and on for perhaps 30+
>>>> times. Worse there is another called Desktop1, with a nested array
>>>> of 'Desktop' folders below. Worse still Windows Vista won't let you
>>>> delete any of these because their filenames are too long. It won't
>>>> let you move their location either to condense/combine them for the
>>>> same reason.
>>>>
>>>> I don't know when the problem started or why.
>>>>
>>>> Any ideas how to extract him from this mess?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks
>>>>
>>>> samaritan michael
>>>
>>> He has been making a new folder ON his desktop each time & then
>>> adding it to the original folder thus using the same name again and
>>> again. Looks like you need to extract the contents of each folder &
>>> pasting to another folder with all other contents. Good luck.
>>>:-)PS. Reading this back it sounds really "Irish".....no disrespect
>>>:to
>>> the Paddies. :-)
>>>
>>>
>>
>

Well maybe. My neighbour uses a Maxtor extrenal drive with it's own Maxstor
software to backup. Maybe it's the same software rebranded. I'll
investigate when I get the chance.

What's is more, because we live in France, we have French Vista. The
desktop folder here is called 'Bureau' and is the normal dsktop. But my
neighbour's system which I am helping out on, had these nested in English
'Desktop' folders and 'Desktop1' folders too. Weird.



"Dave-UK" <> a écrit dans le message de
news:wqqdnQZkJf_eQyHUnZ2dnUVZ8r-...
>
> "m1234" <> wrote in message
> news:#...
>> Hi Tepid,
>>
>> As I have said earlier, I fixed the problem by following Dan's suggestion
>> of renaming each of the multiple Desktop folders into a single letter
>> starting from the top. These then allowed me to combine or delete them.
>>
>> But have you any idea what might have caused 80 nested levels of desktop
>> in the first place?
>>
>> Michael
>
>
> It wasn't Backup Easy was it ?
> http://www.vistaheads.com/forums/mic...rectories.html
>
>
>