Windows 10: Duplicate folders

Thanks for having me on these boards.

This is a new laptop preinstalled with W10 x64.

Under 'This PC' I have a bunch of folders: 3D objects, Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos.

Under 'Users/howar': I have the same set of folders plus some more, e.g. Favorites, Links, One Drive.

Under 'One Drive': I have Attachments, Desktop, Documents, Email attachments, Music, and some more.
(One drive is disabled).

So I have downloads, documents, and music folders and files all over the place. I should not have to check multiple folders to find a file. This set up makes it near impossible to manage files.

What is going on and how can I simplify things? I am the only user and run as administrator.

Thanks for any advice.

John

:)

 

Outlook.com for WIndows Phone

In my Folders list in Outlook.com on my Windows Phone, I have a folder that is my email address name and all of my folders Duplicated under that name. In other words, my folders show up
twice. The folders in the nested set of duplicated folders have nothing in them. Why am I getting this duplicate set of folders?

 

duplicate folders

These were duplicate folders under "This PC." That problem seems to have corrected itself when the computer shut down. Thanks.

 

Hello John,

Actually it is not as bad as it looks since some of the folders all point to the same place. Libraries are a way to bring everything together and the documents, music, pictures and videos libraries are already set up to do this.

See Include Folder to Library in Windows 10 for more details of adding folders to libraries.

 

Instead of default download places I always make appropriate folders i another partition or disk where I can always find them. That way it doesn't clutter default folders on C:\ drive. Unfortunately I was able to find any thing that can make all programs and browsers do that but have to set them one by one, most of them keep their settings and always save content to that folder. I do same thing to most programs I use but make a folder for their output.
As philc said, they are not necessarily duplicate files but just the way to access them from different places.

 

Thanks to both.

I tried these suggestions but got nowhere. The files in C:/users/howar/Documents never appeared in the Library/Documents folder when 'Added'.

To make matters worse, I am constantly bombarded with this:





Try as I may I cannot get rid of it when scrolling with the touchpad. I have disabled all but the essential features of the touchpad and uninstalled all bloatware.

I am coming to the conclusion that I should re-format the HDD and install W7 x64. Or am I jumping the gun? I am 70 years and running low on time....every day counts!

 

This just about explains why I am getting different files in my various Documents folders. But it doesn't tell me how to put things right.

Windows 10 Documents folder in This PC is different from - Microsoft Community
March 23 post

W10 has decided that the user (me) is different from the owner of This PC (me). Therefore it has produced a second set of folders, the contents of which are not always the same, not to mention the contents of the (supposedly disabled) One Drive version of Documents.

You see, MS gave me a user name - howar, which is not my login name on the PC - howard. Why it shortened 'howard' to 'howar' I have no idea but it cannot be edited. I am not going to change my login name to 'howar' just to please Microsoft. Rant over!

Windows 7, here I come!

 

I think I can explain the howar part. When you install W10 Microsoft asks you to setup as either a Microsoft account or an offline user. I'm guessing you provided an email address and set up as a Microsoft account. Your user folder gets named from the first 5 characters of your email address.

An alternative is to set up as an offline account and provide a user name of your own and this then gets used as your user folder name and login name. Later on you can change it to a Microsoft account and it will preserve your folder name the same as you originally set it up, changing your login ID to the email used for your Microsoft account.

 

Thanks again, philc43.

Yes, I did set up with an MS account - very unwisely as its turned out. Just why MS only allows 5 letters in a user name is typically arcane.

Rather than give up, I've set up a local account and will attempt to disentangle myself from One Drive and other features in W10 which cause difficulties for me.

Any idea why I'm being pestered by the black Search Box? Cortana is hidden/disabled.

Regards,
John

 

Hi John,

I do not have a tablet myself so I am not familiar with the way search works in tablet mode. I suggest you look at the following tutorial and also the related tutorials listed at the end. Hopefully there will be some inspiration there for things you can try.

Hide or Show Search Box or Cortana Icon on Taskbar in Windows 10

 

I'm not in tablet mode. Not sure where that came from???

But thanks for the link.

John

 

Have a look at this:

Search bar pops up randomly - Microsoft Community

 

So sorry, *Confused

Touchpad gestures have been introduced in Windows 10. Is there any chance you might be getting three fingers on the touchpad which is one of the gestures for Cortana.

Touch Gestures for Windows 10

 

If you want to eliminate Onedrive you can uninstall it e.g.

 

Thanks to all for interest and advice. ,

I have disabled all the gesture facilities on the touchpad. So, when I use a three finger tap, Cortana does not appear. Similarly for the other 'taps' - they are disabled. Unfortunately, it has not stopped the random black box search popups. Usually, these occur when I try to scroll using the scroll bar with the touchpad.

In the meantime, all my document files have disappeared! Thankfully, they are backed up elsewhere.

Folks reading this could be forgiven for thinking that I have been trolling with all these different problems! I have used up more than my share of other people's time. Whatever is my laptop problem (a faulty touchpad, bad W10 install) or some other hardware problem, I am not going to post again.

I will disable the touchpad and use a mouse. If problems persist, I will do a clean install of W10 or W7. If that fails the machine goes back to John Lewis, London.

Many thanks again.

John