My Downloads and Documents folders became fused

Hi!

I have a weird issue. My Downloads and Documents folders became fused somehow.

I don't just mean they point to the same folder, which was my intention. And before I did without issue.

But both show up as "documents", which is really annoying, especially since the actual folder name is "downloads"... And if I change the location for one, both changes.
When I press "default location" in the properties window, bot is set to the default download path.


I also failed with manual registry changes "personal" in both locations: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders.
No effect. They still point to the same folder despite their keys having different values.

So at this point I'm out of ideas. Does anyone have any?

(I remember that some years ago there used to be an app to deal with something like this. Either locations or just icons, I'm not sure. Though I can't fathom why changing the registry key didn't work.)

Did you right click on either the documents or download folder and clicked on restore path to see if that'll fix it? Or you can add a folder and direct the documents folder to the folder you created and afterwards restore the default path afterwards. It's worth a try

Try3 said:

Please post screenshots of both Keys but make sure you drag around the column dividers at the top of the columns so the whole of each entry can be read.

Please also explain what you want to achieve. If your intention was to collocate Documents & Downloads then you seem to have achieved that already.

Sure, but not sure what good is showing the same thing I wrote down already. Attachment 327121
Attachment 327122

- Windows does not allow the normal Location tab method of changing their paths to separate them [as it warned you when you first collocated them].

I only remember that it notified that the content cannot be separated, which is natural when files are moved into one place.

- - - Updated - - -

smirk24 said:

Did you right click on either the documents or download folder and clicked on restore path to see if that'll fix it? Or you can add a folder and direct the documents folder to the folder you created and afterwards restore the default path afterwards. It's worth a try

Yes. I also mentioned it. They both restore to the download folder.

I also mentioned that I cannot set one folder to something different without the other changing.

Try3 said:

Your attempt to post the screenshots failed.
Please post screenshots of both Keys but make sure you drag around the column dividers at the top of the columns so the whole of each entry can be read.


How to upload and post screenshots and files - TenForumsTutorials

Please also explain what you want to achieve. If your intention was to collocate Documents & Downloads then you seem to have achieved that already.

Denis

I already answered that twice, so I see no point in doing it a third time.

idgat said:

Use the TenForums bat files to reset your user folders
Restore Default Location of Personal Folders in Windows 10

Well, lacking a better idea I did that. Though the downloads folder still showed up by the phony documents folder name...
So I "renamed" it withing explorer to the same name it already had in actuality. The folder icons weren't restored either, so I selected the default folder icon manually.

Then I got curious, so I set both folder back to what I had, but this time the documents first. So now both show up as downloads...
Also the two pinned items I had as "documents" became fused as "downloads" as one item, which I noticed when I removed the item (because it had the wrong icon), and in its place the item with the correct icon appeared. :)
So it's MS buggy™.

avada said:

I already answered that twice, so I see no point in doing it a third time.

I've never seen a more worthless collection of screenshots!


and then you cop an attitude when asked for clarification:

I already answered that twice, so I see no point in doing it a third time.

but you say:

... they point to the same folder, which was my intention...

then proceed to complain:

I also failed with manual registry changes "personal" in both locations: HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders and HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders.
No effect. They still point to the same folder despite their keys having different values.

(which also confirms you don't understand the registry keys/values)

Well, you told us that was your intention...CONGRATULATIONS!

and because you don't understand what you're seeing:

So it's MS buggy™

More like:

"User error. Replace user & press any key to continue."

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The display names for the User's folders come from the LocalizedResourceName entry in the folder's desktop.ini file.To ensure folders display the name of the underlying file system directory, turn off processsing of the deskotp.ini file by clearing the ReadOnly attriubte of the directory:

1. Open Explorer to the folder in quesiton
   
2. Shift+Right-click in the folder background
   
3. select Open PowerShell window here
   
4. ( Actual directory name should display in the prompt )
   
5. Type: (gi .).Attributes -= 'ReadOnly' Enter

While it used to be trivial to assign a display name to the shortcuts under This PC that over-rode both the file system name & the MUI name from desktop.ini (thus allowing two uniquely named shortcuts to point to the same folder ), the last time I checked, it seemed like the code that facilitated that has been removed. I'll check that along with testing some alternatives I think might do the trick.

In the meanwhile, you might want to take a look at this.