Computer and Software Support


What is Documents and Settings

Documents and Settings holds the files for each user that has been created in windows. The administrator account is the default account created when windows is created. It is recommended not to use that account for every day use but to use it for management of the system.

The folders are listed in a tree. If the tree is not open you will see a + sign next to Documents and Settings as you see in this example

   

To access the folder, do the following

  1. Open Windows Explorer
  2. Double-Click Drive C
    1. Windows XP
   
    1. Windows Vista and Windows 7
   
  1. You will see the following
    You will see the following
       
    1. Windows XP and older
      1. Documents and Settings
   
    1. Windows Vista and Windows 7
      1. Users
   
  1. Double-click
    1. Windows XP
      1. Documents and settings and you will see
   
    1. Windows Vista and Windows 7
      1. Users and you will see
   
  1. Double-click the user (in this example it will be Jesse)
    1. Windows XP and older
   
    1. Windows Vista and Windows 7
   

 

You will not see the files and folders that are listed in that directory while it is in that state. To see the files and folders, you have to expand the directory by clicking on the + and that will open the directory and you will see something that looks similar to this (most of the user names will be different on each computer but the layout will be similar)

   

 

Above has the listing of the users that are set up for that computer. The users are as follows (the list of users will be different on each computer)

  • All Users (This is created by default when windows is installed. This is a hidden folder)

  • Default User (This is created by default when windows is installed. This is a hidden folder)

  • Jesse

  • LocalService (may or may not exist)

  • NetworkService (may or may not exist)

  • Support (user created)

  • Teresa (user created)

  • Upgradenrepair (user created)

  • Visitor (user created)

  • Guest (Created by default when Windows is created. However, it is turned off and therefore is not shown. You can turn it on if desired)

Users above that has (user created) indicates that the computer user created the account.

All User, Default User, LocalService, and NetworkService was users that windows created and you will not normally touch. The other users are users that the administrator of the computer created. Under a user you will see folders that are for that user. Each user will have various folders such as

The above list is only an example of folders found under a user. Your system may not have all of them.

There is other folders as well. Some will not be seen unless you show hidden files and folders. By default some folders are hidden.  To unhide folders and files click here.

Folders such as My music, My video, My pictures and so forth will be found under the My Documents folder

   

The above is for Windows XP. In Windows Vista the folder is called Users instead of Documents and Settings

For more information on what are directories, trees, files and folders are click here

Click here for VERY IMPORTANT information about deleting files and folders before you perform any alterations on the computer!!!