Windows' Profile folder named Downloads

Hi,
My profile folder (c:\Users\[profile]\ is shown as Downloads in Windows Explorer although it is not the Downloads folder (see picture).
This happened when i mistakenly relocated the Downloads folder to "c:\Users\[profile]" instead of "c:\Users\[profile]\Downloads".

As I couldn't manually relocate the Downloads folder afterwards (for some reason, there's no Location tab when the Downloads folder is set to the Profile folder) I had to reassign the Downloads folder with a bat file I found here:
Restore Default Location of Personal Folders in Windows 10

The location itself, i.e. the path, is still my profile name, for example "c:\Users\tanin" but it is still very annoying.

I there a way to fix this?
Thanks

Barman58 said:

The Batch file option may be the best idea for your issue or you could create a new folder set it to be the "missing" user downloads folder manually and then use the Reset Option to put it back where it belongs .

I already did that. My Downloads folder is now "D:\Downloads" but that is not the problem.

The problem is that "C:\Users\[Profile]" is still showing in Windows Explorer as the Downloads folder, but it is only aesthetically, i.e. an icon and the wrong "name". Pressing Downloads in quick access gets me to "D:\Downloads".

Barman58 said:

If it's just a cosmetic issue then this is likely to be due to the Desktop.Ini file that sets the Special view parameters for system folders ...

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/win...th-desktop-ini

If all else fails you may need to manually correct the information in here - One of which is the Icon resource

As far as I understand the Deskop.ini will let me change the icon but no the name.

tanin said:

As far as I understand the Deskop.ini will let me change the icon but no the name.

Have you tried just changing the name of the folder in explorer? Before you do so, have a look inside desktop.ini and you may see the current name like so:
[.ShellClassInfo]
LocalizedResourceName=Downloads
...
I suggest you edit it to confirm the effect it has, then remove the entry and it should revert (may require a log-off-on). If push comes to shove, you could delete desktop.ini.

Some time ago I relocated my (and other users') documents etc to another drive, not fully understanding what W10 would do, and it inserted a desktop.ini file in the new location, which was a top-level folder. So Explorer now shows two 'Documents' folders on D:, one for me and one for my wife. I have since renamed the folders in desktop.ini to differentiate them, but updates have made them identical again. I am about to delete the D: desktop.ini file and will report back...
... the folders show my desired names in Explorer, and no desktop.ini files have been created - but I expect another update may change that.

What I now realise I should have done was relocate documents to a sub-folder under my space on D:\dad, rather than to D:\dad itself, so that D:\dad would retain its normal name - but to do that would mess up my historical backup process, which I am loathe to mess with. But maybe an experiment is called for...

tanin said:

As far as I understand the Deskop.ini will let me change the icon but no the name.

There are more to these special function folders than just the desktop.ini. Merging such a folder with your Profile folder cannot be undone, according to Microsoft....



While it is true that there is no easy mechanism to undo the merge, it is possible to separate the two. Desktop.ini is just part of it, the rest is registry editing.


Undo: Merged your Pictures folder with your User folder

@Barman58: my data is not in the root of D:, but in D:\dad and below, so I don't think that is/was the issue. I think it is just the normal W10 behaviour. The consequence of removing the desktop.ini in there is that my documents folder now appears at the top level of explorer as 'dad', which I can live with (but my wife may have trouble with...).