In Windows 10, what is the difference between %UserProfile%\Documents and This PC\Documents? Similarly, what is the difference between %UserProfile%\Music and This PC\Music? If none, then why the cloning of the same folder under a different name?
3 Answers
Those two are the same folder, and it only appears once. The paths that Explorer shows on the top can be a little misleading- they're meant to make it easy to find files, so a lot of important stuff is omitted. It also tends to be inconsistent, so your Documents folder might show up under My PC or by itself at different times. To get the actual path to the file/folder, right-click on it, select "Properties", and look in the "Location" section. In reality, your Documents folder is probably located at %UserProfile%\Documents.
A recap- Explorer might show your Documents folder in several places, but those are simply shortcuts and not the actual locations of the folder. Regardless of where you find "Documents", clicking on it will take you to the same place.
This PC\Documents is supposed to be a shortcut for the current user that is logged in and links to %UserProfile%\Documents. When a user logs in, its automatically linking This PC\Documents to the real folder at %UserProfile%\Documents.
This became muddied thanks to the "Libraries" feature which allowed document collections to be in multiple locations, but referenced as if one location.
If you search "How To Geek Remove Folders from This PC", the first hit or two should be to the HowToGeek website (a very good resource site) with instructions on how to hide those extra folders there in the left side navigation pane.
Obviously, it depends.
If you are not syncing Documents folder to your OneDrive cloud, they the same %UserProfile%\Documents:
If you do sync your Documents folder to your OneDrive: the former remains as %UserProfile%\Documents, while the latter becomes %UserProfile%\OneDrive\Documents. And their contents are different.
%UserProfile%\OneDrive\Documents.