Heidi, I get confused by Owner, User, Power User.... When Harold is up n running, he should only be of User status, and use Run As if he needs to temporarily run as an Admin, or switch user if it is a more involved job.

I already did all suggestions. Does this mean I should start all over and create a user account for "Harold" and then follow these steps again?

If Harold is going to be the only user, leave those other profiles alone [- these: "So under "c:/documents&settings" we have "All Users", "Default User""].

Yes, OK. He is the only user.

Lessee. Missed a point... under that block of reg changes i suggested, I should have said - it is only necessary to change an entry in Shell Folders if it is not present in User Shell Folders.

It was present so I did change it also.

Nice work on the reorg of the drives. Told you it wuz easy.

Yes it was pretty easy! Thanks so much!!

One more question. I made the path to "My Documents" point to my "g:\(Longstay)" partition, as opposed to pointing to "eShortstay)/user documents and data/my documents". Was that a dumb idea? Will it cause confusion to the pc? It seems to me that "My Documents", "My Pics", "My Music", "My Videos" should be somewhere more "permanent". And when ripping CDs, music could be set to rip to g:\My Music. Or should "My documents" stay in the shortstay partition? Or could/should I do both?
Thanks again, Friend!!
(PS. Are you an Aussie? Just curious)

Last first... yeah, but I avoid the crocodile dundee excesses.. :)
My docs path... it's really up to you how you deal with it, whether you regard/treat the stuff you put in there as valuable or not; I have chosen to make it a storage for gear that is much reviewed/changed, and temporary.
For example, whimsical clips, pics etc sent by correspondents that one may keep for a couple weeks to show someone else, but are not the stuff you would treasure; notes I contrive on set topics in this forum; Quick, Regular access stuff....
The stuff I really want to keep is in other volumes [partitions] from where I can easily back it up without including temp junk. eg music I dl and decide to keep while I compile it, albums etc I am currently listening to, pics I am photoshopping, accounting records etc..... That is just the way I do it - do it the way which is valid for you. So no, it's not dumb.
I use emule for dl's.. they go to a folder inside Downloads directory.... reviewed and tossed or passed into another [music] directory for keeping. Rips from CDs go to the music directory again.... I don't use My Music.
That My Documents directory under Desktop is just a link structure - it only contains links to where you are actually storing My Documents... the links will only have one pathname in em, so you cannot confuse em.
Albert, Harold, Theodore... - same bloke, your son, the User. Educate him on running as a User, not as an Admin for normal work n play. Only when you really need Admin permissions eg for some pgm installation work etc should he run as Admin. - safer for the sys.
SP2. Install it when ready [and sys is CLEAN!!] from that file under safe mode. Soonish.
Nice that you made the last a logical partition, cos if wanted the deal is that you can use swares to shrink the prev one[s] and easily add another.. but that is mostly just fooling roun' stuff, ma'am.
Are we there yet? ..sbeen fun.

Last first... yeah,

I knew it! ;o)

Are we there yet? ..sbeen fun.

I guess that wraps it up, 'cause my son and his pc went home this morn. It's a done deal. Wish I'd had more time, still had a few ?s. But, oh well. No biggie. I've learned so much from frequenting this forum, and this site! I've received help here on a few different occasions. Anyway. Thanks again, Gerbil, for all your help! I shall think fondly of you, every time I see you've replied to someone's desperate post! Perhaps you may even see me here again sometime in the near future. Who knows......... ;o)
~Heidi

It's a more managable sys you've supplied him. He should rarely have to defrag C: cos now windows can stretch out, unbothered relatively, and it will reorganise itself into an arrangement of its files so that the most used are close n handy for loading; it has the space to put its sys restore files out of the way. One thing I didn mention was to set its virtual memory to a size bout 1 1/2 times the RAM size. Gulp. Should be okay tho on default
So in your next email to him, you cn tell him to go ..
Control panel, system, Advanced, Performance settings, Advanced, Virtual Mem Change, select C:, press Custom size, make initial size 1 1/2 times RAM, max size the same or twice RAM, Set, Apply, OK .. n out..
Stay well.

I'll just call him and tell him to do that. He can handle it. He's a fairly intelligent young man. And I made him promise that he'd stay offline for now. Until I get SP2 and figure out other minor details. Take Care.

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