Windows Vista And Personal Storage Space

Except for the flashy new GUI, Windows Vista is similar to Windows XP and earlier versions of Windows. This allows people who are used to Windows to adjust to Windows Vista. But there are subtle differences, such as where personal data is stored.

In Windows XP and earlier versions of Windows, your personal storage would be part of your user profile. Your documents might be stored in a folder in "C:\Documents and Settings\(Your AccountName)\My Documents".

In Windows Vista, "C:\Documents and Settings\" has been reorganised, and your personal storage will now be part of "C:\Users\(Your AccountName)\". To provide backward compatibility with older versions of Windows, Vista still will recognise the path "C:\Documents and Settings\(Your AccountName)\", but will retain it as what it calls a "junction point". A junction point is the Vista term for an object that doesn't exist, except virtually.

When you use Windows Explorer (or its Vista equivalent), and try to open "C:\Documents and Settings\(Your AccountName)\My Documents\", you should get "C:\Users\(Your AccountName)\My Documents\", labeled as "C:\Documents and Settings\(Your AccountName)\My Documents\", assuming that you have permissions properly setup.

This is more complicated, when a computer running Windows Vista is a client, and a computer running Windows XP is a server. If the client reports getting "access denied" when trying to open a file in "C:\Documents and Settings\(Your AccountName)\My Documents\", it may be referring to "C:\Users\(Your AccountName)\My Documents\" on the server. "C:\Users\" doesn't exist in Windows XP.