Moved Desktop folder merged with Public Desktop folder by mistake

Andrew00 said:

Hello
So my friend tried the location of the personal folders like document and downloads, etc, but the whole thing got messed up and everything was named documents. And the real personal folders were redirected to the Public folder and not the original user one. So I played around with the bat files and it seems like everything went back except for like an icon and two. Except that when I write "shell:desktop" it redirects me to the desktop in the Public folder. So when I make a new file or folder it shows up in both desktops in both profiles. Any help ? :)
P.S
Thanks for the bat files

Hello Andrew, and welcome to Ten Forums.

Just to double check, post back with screenshots of the full values and paths for the two registry keys below.

HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders

HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

@Brink,

You might disagree but I think this problem [Andrew00] should be hived off into its own thread so the problem can be addressed properly & specifically.

Andrew00,

Please post the contents of the Registry key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
- You only need to include the right-hand pane because that's where the data of interest is.
- Snipping tool is probably the easiest tool to use to capture the key's contents. A basic guide to using the Snipping tool - TenForums
- Make sure you drag the column header divider lines to widen the columns so all the data can be seen [it's just like dragging around column headers in File explorer]

Denis

Andrew,

Are you sure that this work was done with your friend logged in to his user account?

There's no indication in the screenshots that anything has been done at all.

Please go to shell:desktop then click in the File explorer address bar [don't just look at it, click in it] and check exactly what path is shown.

Denis

The paths for the Desktop string values are correct.

In addition to what Denis posted above, post some screenshots showing the folders inside your "C:\Users\Hedaya" and "C:\Users\Public" folders to see if anything may stand out as incorrect. For example, the folders do not have the default icon indicating something may be wrong with its location settings, or an incorrect entry in the hidden Desktop.ini file in these folders.

If you didn't want to go through more troubleshooting, one option would be to use option 2 in the tutorial below to create a new profile for your account to be used instead.

Fix User Profile Service Failed the Sign-in Error in Windows 10

Use this forums solution to (re)creating/restoring user system folders.

Restore Default Location of Personal Folders in Windows 10.

Obviously, just do the Desktop one, but you'll have to manually copy/move any contents back to their required location.