Windows Vista Nested Desktop Folders Problem

Question

I have no idea how, nor when this happened, and it's started to really quite annoy me.

When navigating through Explorer, by clicking on Icons I have C:\Users\Samuel\Desktop (Icon is the blue special Desktop icon), which contains the items I see on my Desktop. I then have the following folder: C:\Users\Samuel\Desktop (Icon is the standard yellow folder icon), which contains many program shortcuts, and is completely separate from the other C:\Users\Samuel\Desktop

Then in the Yellow Icon Desktop I have the sub-folder Desktop with the blue icon that is a direct mirror of the blue C:\Users\Samuel\Desktop folder (as in a new folder / file shows up in both).

In explorer when I directly type

C:\Users\Samuel\Desktop

I am taken to the Yellow folder version.

If I go to

C:\Users\Samuel\Desktop\Desktop

I am taken to the Blue folder version.

Finally, from cmd cd'ing to

C:\Users\Samuel\Desktop

takes me to the Yellow folder version

whilst

C:\Users\Samuel\Desktop\Desktop

takes me to the blue folder version.

How on earth can I get rid of the yellow folder version leaving the blue C:\Users\Samuel\Desktop. I can't delete either as it says they're in use.

UPDATE: Ok, so it looks like doing a dir from cmd lists only one Desktop folder - the Yellow one. In addition, it looks like I can't delete either of them (given that they both contain my 'Desktop'

Answer 1

Read this article, you may have to use the hidden Admin account to delete the folders

http://www.vistaheads.com/forums/microsoft-public-windows-vista-general/337152-please-help-multiple-desktop-folder-icons-cannot-rid.html

Answer 2

I suggest you move all the files on both folders to a temporary location, change the user folder location to a temporary location using this guide: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/107990-personal-user-shell-folders-move-location.html And then change it back to C:\Users\, that should fix it.