Deleted users' system folders were changed to system files

I am using version 1903 build 18362.535. In version 1809, whenever I removed the system assigned "My..." user folders, Windows restored them occasionally. Now in 1903, I removed them and Windows replaced the folders with "system files". So now the My Documents .etc . . files were placed there by Windows. Their contents are identical. The others, Pictures, Documents, Contacts and Favorites I created using renamed copies of the same system files.

That's under Libraries. What do they look like under Quick Access or under your account?

I have Libraries hidden and use Quick Access and the real folders under my account. Mine look like this:

Fair enough. Attached is the image showing the actual users\ineuw folder. As for Quick access, mine is completely broken, although would like to try it as well because there are limitations to the library.

Yuk, looks the same there as it did under Libraries.

Note that My Documents, My Music, My Pictures and My Videos are Junction points, not actual folders. They point to the real folders which are Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos. They are there strictly for compatibility with older software that expects those names and not the new names.

In your image, even the real folders (Documents and Pictures) have been converted to the 1KB System file, though I have no idea what that really is. Maybe Shawn @Brink can help?

I haven't seen that before either.

If you create a new account, do the folders for that account show as folders and not like this?

While this is a single user laptop with 1 account, but I will test it later on today by creating a new account and will post the results.

P.S: It shows up in the libraries because user:ineuw is pinned on the library tree. It reflects what there is in the actual user folder.

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PPS: Some software issued an exception but went on with no problems. The Windows system files have the "Everyone" account only and with full rights. The owner is the "Administrators".

Hmm, may be time to reset or clean install Windows.

Brink said:

Hmm, may be time to reset or clean install Windows.

Agree. Start with Reset keeping all files, see if that does the job. If not then make sure you have a good backup (Macrium Reflect Free to an external HDD is the way to go) then either reset keeping nothing or do a Clean Install.

I didn't post this thread to complain, but to show that this is an intelligent solution to a problem, and I am glad that MS found a way for their design and my preferences to coexist. Otherwise, my system is a recent install which is meticulously maintained but the first comment I get is to reinstall, just because you are shown something unfamiliar.

My experienced take on this system folder/file issue is that I can't be the only one who doesn't want the MS designated "My......." system folders. MS implemented this solution because it was recorded in their collected diagnostics.

To test this as another user is far more daunting than I expected. What kind of Administrator account should I have created? Family, non-family, MS or a local account? In the end I created a local account as Administrator, only to learn that I have to change ownership and permissions of the C: drive to access the installed programs.

Managed to do that, then restarted and it worked once only. The second restart resulted in a LBSOD (light blue) and Windows 10 crashed. So I restored the mirror.

ineuw said:

I didn't post this thread to complain, but to show that this is an intelligent solution to a problem, and I am glad that MS found a way for their design and my preferences to coexist. Otherwise, my system is a recent install which is meticulously maintained but the first comment I get is to reinstall, just because you are shown something unfamiliar.

My experienced take on this system folder/file issue is that I can't be the only one who doesn't want the MS designated "My......." system folders. MS implemented this solution because it was recorded in their collected diagnostics.

To test this as another user is far more daunting than I expected. What kind of Administrator account should I have created? Family, non-family, MS or a local account? In the end I created a local account as Administrator, only to learn that I have to change ownership and permissions of the C: drive to access the installed programs.

Managed to do that, then restarted and it worked once only. The second restart resulted in a LBSOD (light blue) and Windows 10 crashed. So I restored the mirror.

I understand.

It's just that from your description, it sounds like most if not all of the system files may have had the owner changed to "Everyone" and allowed full access. Usually, when this happens it's almost impossible to get everything back to the way it was, and end up having to reset or clean install Windows 10 anyways. Especially if it's still having the same issue with a new account. It's never a good idea to change the owner and permissions of the "C" drive for this very reason.

Do you have a system image created before all this happened you can restore to make it an easy fix?