Windows XP: Associating a User Account With a User Folder

Introduction

These instructions associate a user account created in the "User Accounts" Control Panels with a particular user folder located in Documents and Settings. They are useful for someone who has performed a reinstall while preserving user data of the operating system or has backed up a user folder to another location and now needs to move it back. The user folder contains all of "My Documents", "Desktop", Favorites and bookmarks, some program settings, themes, desktop settings, etc.

Unlike in Mac OS X, creating a user account in Windows XP with the same name as a user's folder will not automatically associate the folder with the user.The path information for user accounts is stored in the registry, but there is an simpler method than editing the registry to "trick" the system to associate a user folder with a user account.

Note: If you see "access denied" or permissions errors, see instructions for resetting permissions.

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Associating the User Folder

1. Locate the user folder. I will call it the "target user folder" in the following steps to avoid confusion. It should have a structure like the following (you may not see some of the files/folders if you do not have the option to "show hidden files" checked):
   
   
2. Make sure the target user folder's name is not the same as any folders currently residing in the Documents and Settings folder, then move the target user folder to <boot volume>:\Documents and Settings (C:\Documents and Settings on most machines).



3. If you have already created the user account you wish to associate with your target user folder and logged into the account at least once, skip to step 7. Otherwise, continue to the next step.



4. Rename the target user folder to something like "user.bak". This step will allow the new user folder you will create in step 6 to be created with a clean name.



5. Go to the Control Panel > User Accounts. Create the user account you want to associate with the target user folder.



6. Log out of your user current account and log into the newly-created user account. This is when Windows will create the folder for the user. If there is already a user folder in the Documents and Settings folder with the same name as the user account (such as if the target user folder was not renamed in step 4), a new folder will still be created, but it will have a longer name such as <username>.WINDOWS or <username>.<name of machine>.



7. Reboot the machine. Boot into Safe Mode by pressing the F8 key right before the Windows XP logo appears. If you were able to hit the F8 key at the right time, you should see a list of boot options. Select "Safe Mode". If not, reboot the machine and try agian.



8. Log in as the Administrator account, NOT the account you wish to associate with the target user folder.



9. Windows will display a message about Safe Mode; click OK.



10. Go to your Documents and Settings folder. In this folder, you should have two folders that pertain to your user account: one newly-created but which holds no data, and the target user folder which has all of your old data.



11. Move the newly-created, dataless user folder to the Recycle Bin or rename it to something that will not conflict with anything else.



12. Rename the target user folder to the exact name of the newly-created user folder which you deleted or renamed in the previous step.



13. Reboot the machine and log in as your user account. If you have named the target user folder correctly according to step 12, you should now see your desktop, documents, etc. If not, Windows will create another new folder for your user account. However, you can still go back to step 7 and try again.