Windows 7 Pro create/restore image left 'All Users' and 'Default User' pointing to D:\

Question

All,

I apologize, I am not a windows user (not primarily), but I can find my way around under the hood OK. This has me bewildered. I have a 1-user (me) Win7 Pro install that I used create image (to create a complete image of my drive on an external hard drive -- and created the Recovery CD to boot/reinstall the system on a new drive). It worked fine and everything is working fine -- except for a strange issue regarding the links created to the \Users\All Users and \Users\Default User. They point to a non-existent D:\ (it exists -- it is my CD drive, but apparently the external image drive, or possibly the CD, was labeled D:\ during the image restore). So now the links point to the wrong place. E.g:

C:\Users>dir /a:h
 Volume in drive C is Windows
 Volume Serial Number is ECC4-9A8B

 Directory of C:\Users

07/14/2009  12:08 AM    <SYMLINKD>     All Users [d:\ProgramData]
07/14/2009  02:07 AM    <DIR>          Default
07/14/2009  12:08 AM    <JUNCTION>     Default User [d:\Users\Default]
07/13/2009  11:54 PM               174 desktop.ini
               1 File(s)            174 bytes
               3 Dir(s)  1,849,542,746,112 bytes free

I generally set the windows explorer view properties to view all system/hidden files (when needed) and to show protected operating system files. So I can take care of tidying up the start menu, etc. as needed. So now when I check the properties of the All Users and Default User, they point to D and are not accessible. Moreover, I cannot edit (or figure out how to edit) the locations to fix the issue.

So my questions are (1) How do I fix the location for the symlinks and junction? and (2) does it really matter? (since Win7 seems happy, but I can foresee it becoming a problem if I ever need to add another user to the system)

Currently I am simply taking care of the start menu through "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu", which works, but I would like to make things right with the system.

---

Edit (SOLVED) - OK, It was Doable

As listed in the comment, and reprinted here to help some other soul who is not windows centric, the basic approach is:

Use Command Prompt (as administrator). Navigate to \Users, then rmdir on both All Users and Default User.

Then create the link and junction:

mklink /D "All Users" C:\ProgramData
mklink /J "Default User" \Users

You then recreate the Special Permissions through the Advanced Security Settings dialog for both.

Disable [ ] Include inherited... and choose Add to apply the inherited permissions to the current link/junction).

Under Change Permissions for Everyone (allow Traverse, List folder, Read attrib, Read extended (all 4 together), and Read permission (toward the bottom)), create (Add) a second Everyone and set (deny list/read), then for SYSTEM grant (all -- individually select allow each), Administrators grant (all -- same) and you are almost done.

You will need to finish up by setting the attributes on the "All Users" link and "Default User" junction as follows:

cd \Users
attrib +H +S +I "All Users" /L
attrib +H +S +I "Default User" /L

That will complete the correct restoration of both, which you can confirm:

C:\Users>dir /a:h
 Volume in drive C is Windows
 Volume Serial Number is ECC4-9A8B

 Directory of C:\Users

03/24/2016  04:50 PM    <SYMLINKD>     All Users [C:\ProgramData]
07/14/2009  02:07 AM    <DIR>          Default
03/24/2016  04:43 PM    <JUNCTION>     Default User [C:\Users\Default]
07/13/2009  11:54 PM               174 desktop.ini
               1 File(s)            174 bytes
               3 Dir(s)  1,848,337,330,176 bytes free

Answer 1

I have experienced similar situations to this where my user profile folders where pointed towards a network shake. If you right click on these folders and go to properties, do you see an option for moving the folder to an external folder? If so, change it back to the original destination. The option should be called something like 'Target Folder Location'.

Hope this works,