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We have user profiles in windows 10 system stored on D: partition.

However they are logically stored on D:\UserData, but actual physical path is D:\Users.

It means if I type in win explorer D:\UserData, I am redirected to D:\Users. Path on windows explorer address bar shows "This PC > UserData(D:) > Users". When I click on address bar the path is shown D:\UserData.

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList key ProfilesDirectory is D:\UserData.

Then accidentally the D: partition was formatted and user was unable to login after that. Only after creating physical folder D:\UserData the user was able to login. And this time if I go to D:\UserData in windows explorer I am actually in physical D:\UserData and not in physical D:\Users. I mean that after format the redirection is no longer there.

There is a need to restore previous redirection and structure because some apps cannot install correctly, but where is this system wide redirection managed?

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I don't pretend to fully understand if this is the correct way to fix this, but I can guess that it might be solved by creating a hard link to D:\Users using the mklink command. Backup your important data and proceed at your own risk

  1. Open CMD window as administrator
  2. Type: mklink /J "D:\UserData" "D:\Users"
  3. Reboot the computer
  4. Test problematic software installs

This will create a hard link to that folder.

I'd be interested to know if this works.

You can find a quick guide on mklink here

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  • I tried this way, and the folder "UserData" with shortcut symbol appeared. In other systems there is no folder "UserData" at all. Like invisible redirection.
    – Marin
    Sep 21, 2022 at 12:01
  • You can completely hide that UserData folder by adding the "hidden" and "system" attributes in CMD: attrib +s +h "D:\UserData"
    – Mastaxx
    Sep 21, 2022 at 13:38
  • That will hide that folder to the point where it still won't be visible even if users enabled the "show hidden" setting in their file browsers. It will only be accessible if you were to manually type the full path to it in the address bar.
    – Mastaxx
    Sep 21, 2022 at 13:39

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