User Profile transported to Bizarro-World

Hello, Wesley!
Thanks for taking the time to reply [ After 2-3 hours of
painstaking work in the registry, backing up and editing a particular
DocFolderPath value and the same user's ProfileList values, I finally
got things pretty much back to normal....The "cause" of the problem was
my trashing around in a command-prompt window, armed with a dangerous
amount of ignorance, and trying to batch-delete a bunch of files from
"C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet
Files". I had navigated to that directory from command-line, and then
"assumed" that since I was in that folder, if I entered ".del/*.*"
(without the quotes), the only files being deleted would be ones inside
that folder. WRONG.

On Dec 2, 4:48 pm, "Wesley Vogel" <123WVogel... DeleteThis @comcast.net> wrote:
> %homedrive% is an environment variable that is the current user's home
> folder drive letter.
>
> Typing or pasting %homedrive% into the Start | Run box opens to C:\ on my
> machine. I only have one drive and one volume.
>
> --
> Hope this helps. Let us know.
>
> Wes
> MS-MVP Windows Shell/User
>
> Innews:1165074949.581975.134130@f1g2000cwa.googlegroups.com,
> riprap <riprap1... DeleteThis @comcast.net> hunted and pecked:
>
> > Hello, All You XP Experts!
> > Here's another XP UserProfile puzzle: Just within the last couple of
> > days, every time I log off from my usual user account, then log back
> > on, all my User Settings have 'disappeared' from Firefox & Opera. IOW,
> > when I fire up the 'puter and start one of those browsers, they act
> > just like they were being started on that user-acct for the first time:
> > No home page, absolutely no bookmarks, no previously-installed skins or
> > plug-ins, etc.
> > Now here's the second part of this weirdness: Every time I fire the
> > computer up, way over in another partition in an 'apparently-unrelated'
> > folder that I used to store .bat files in, a big fat directory called
> > "%homepath%" (without the quotes) appears, containing (you guessed it)
> > all of that user's settings.
> > Can any of you XP wizards give me a starting-point for repairing this
> > snafu?
> > Thanks for your time & attention to detail [
>
> > riprap
> > living under a bridge, grappling with XP Pro
 >> Stay informed about: User Profile transported to Bizarro-World 

On Dec 2, 11:49 pm, "riprap" <riprap1....TakeThisOut@comcast.net> wrote:
> Hello, Wesley!
> Thanks for taking the time to reply [ After 2-3 hours of
> painstaking work in the registry, backing up and editing a particular
> DocFolderPath value and the same user's ProfileList values, I finally
> got things pretty much back to normal....The "cause" of the problem was
> my trashing around in a command-prompt window, armed with a dangerous
> amount of ignorance, and trying to batch-delete a bunch of files from
> "C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet
> Files". I had navigated to that directory from command-line, and then
> "assumed" that since I was in that folder, if I entered ".del/*.*"
> (without the quotes), the only files being deleted would be ones inside
> that folder. WRONG. ((Sorry--hit Enter by mistake.)) Anyway, the next thing I knew the prompt-window was filled with filenames scrolling past, hundreds of items being deleted from deep in the bowels of that user's account, and if I hadn't woke up about three seconds later and hit Ctrl + Break, I've no idea how far the destruction would've spread....
Am I making sense or no? Can a MSoft expert like yourself tell me
basically what command-line syntax error I made, using that
slant-character and then the double wildcards after that? I mean, if I
had already navigated to the Temporary Internet Files folder, why would
Windows have deleted all kinds of other Application and Local Settings
and various user files out of that Documents and Settings folder?
Anyway, things are almost back to normal, my web browsers are finally
retaining their bookmarks and plugins, etc, and maybe a lesson was
learned.
Thanks much for the reply! Happy computing.
riprap
living under the bridge using XP Pro for heat
>
> On Dec 2, 4:48 pm, "Wesley Vogel" <123WVogel....TakeThisOut@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> > %homedrive% is an environment variable that is the current user's home
> > folder drive letter.
>
> > Typing or pasting %homedrive% into the Start | Run box opens to C:\ on my
> > machine. I only have one drive and one volume.
>
> > --
> > Hope this helps. Let us know.
>
> > Wes
> > MS-MVP Windows Shell/User
>
> > Innews:1165074949.581975.134130@f1g2000cwa.googlegroups.com,
> > riprap <riprap1....TakeThisOut@comcast.net> hunted and pecked:
>
> > > Hello, All You XP Experts!
> > > Here's another XP UserProfile puzzle: Just within the last couple of
> > > days, every time I log off from my usual user account, then log back
> > > on, all my User Settings have 'disappeared' from Firefox & Opera. IOW,
> > > when I fire up the 'puter and start one of those browsers, they act
> > > just like they were being started on that user-acct for the first time:
> > > No home page, absolutely no bookmarks, no previously-installed skins or
> > > plug-ins, etc.
> > > Now here's the second part of this weirdness: Every time I fire the
> > > computer up, way over in another partition in an 'apparently-unrelated'
> > > folder that I used to store .bat files in, a big fat directory called
> > > "%homepath%" (without the quotes) appears, containing (you guessed it)
> > > all of that user's settings.
> > > Can any of you XP wizards give me a starting-point for repairing this
> > > snafu?
> > > Thanks for your time & attention to detail [
>
> > > riprap
> > > living under a bridge, grappling with XP Pro
 >> Stay informed about: User Profile transported to Bizarro-World 

del *.* is the fastest way to clean out a folder. But as you have seen, you
have to be very CAREFUL with it.

Using the wild cards *.* will delete every file that is in a folder. The
first apostrophe covers every filename and the second one covers every
extension.

I honestly have no idea what happened to you.

As far as this command goes; del/*.* I am not sure if it is a valid command
or if it is what caused your problem.

In the future, use this method. Works with IE6, but not with IE7 (IE7 does
not have Delete all offline content).

To delete *all* of your Temporary Internet Files...

1) Start | Run | Type: inetcpl.cpl | Click OK
Or right click the Internet Explorer icon on your Desktop
Or Start | Settings | Control Panel | Internet Options
Best to do this with all instances of Internet Explorer closed. Especially
if there are a large number of files. Also close OE.
2) On the General Tab, in the middle of the screen, click on Delete Files
3) Check the box: Delete all offline content {This cleans >>
%userprofile%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
AND
%userprofile%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5
and \Content.MSO (Created by an MS Office program)}
4) Click on OK and wait for the hourglass icon to stop after it deletes the
temporary internet files
5) You can now click on Delete Cookies and click OK to delete cookies that
websites have placed on your hard drive.
6) You can also click on the Clear History button to empty your History
folder.

Note: If you do NOT select the Delete all offline content box, not
everything will be cleaned out.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In news:1165129154.731328.161140@80g2000cwy.googlegroups.com,
riprap <riprap1951 DeleteThis @comcast.net> hunted and pecked:
> On Dec 2, 11:49 pm, "riprap" <riprap1... DeleteThis @comcast.net> wrote:
>> Hello, Wesley!
>> Thanks for taking the time to reply [ After 2-3 hours of
>> painstaking work in the registry, backing up and editing a particular
>> DocFolderPath value and the same user's ProfileList values, I finally
>> got things pretty much back to normal....The "cause" of the problem was
>> my trashing around in a command-prompt window, armed with a dangerous
>> amount of ignorance, and trying to batch-delete a bunch of files from
>> "C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet
>> Files". I had navigated to that directory from command-line, and then
>> "assumed" that since I was in that folder, if I entered ".del/*.*"
>> (without the quotes), the only files being deleted would be ones inside
>> that folder. WRONG. ((Sorry--hit Enter by mistake.)) Anyway, the next
>> thing I knew the prompt-window was filled with filenames scrolling past,
>> hundreds of items being deleted from deep in the bowels of that user's
>> account, and if I hadn't woke up about three seconds later and hit Ctrl
>> + Break, I've no idea how far the destruction would've spread....
> Am I making sense or no? Can a MSoft expert like yourself tell me
> basically what command-line syntax error I made, using that
> slant-character and then the double wildcards after that? I mean, if I
> had already navigated to the Temporary Internet Files folder, why would
> Windows have deleted all kinds of other Application and Local Settings
> and various user files out of that Documents and Settings folder?
> Anyway, things are almost back to normal, my web browsers are finally
> retaining their bookmarks and plugins, etc, and maybe a lesson was
> learned.
> Thanks much for the reply! Happy computing.
> riprap
> living under the bridge using XP Pro for heat
>>
>> On Dec 2, 4:48 pm, "Wesley Vogel" <123WVogel... DeleteThis @comcast.net> wrote:
>>
>>> %homedrive% is an environment variable that is the current user's home
>>> folder drive letter.
>>
>>> Typing or pasting %homedrive% into the Start | Run box opens to C:\ on
>>> my machine. I only have one drive and one volume.
>>
>>> --
>>> Hope this helps. Let us know.
>>
>>> Wes
>>> MS-MVP Windows Shell/User
>>
>>> Innews:1165074949.581975.134130@f1g2000cwa.googlegroups.com,
>>> riprap <riprap1... DeleteThis @comcast.net> hunted and pecked:
>>
>>>> Hello, All You XP Experts!
>>>> Here's another XP UserProfile puzzle: Just within the last couple of
>>>> days, every time I log off from my usual user account, then log back
>>>> on, all my User Settings have 'disappeared' from Firefox & Opera. IOW,
>>>> when I fire up the 'puter and start one of those browsers, they act
>>>> just like they were being started on that user-acct for the first time:
>>>> No home page, absolutely no bookmarks, no previously-installed skins or
>>>> plug-ins, etc.
>>>> Now here's the second part of this weirdness: Every time I fire the
>>>> computer up, way over in another partition in an 'apparently-unrelated'
>>>> folder that I used to store .bat files in, a big fat directory called
>>>> "%homepath%" (without the quotes) appears, containing (you guessed it)
>>>> all of that user's settings.
>>>> Can any of you XP wizards give me a starting-point for repairing this
>>>> snafu?
>>>> Thanks for your time & attention to detail [
>>
>>>> riprap
>>>> living under a bridge, grappling with XP Pro
 >> Stay informed about: User Profile transported to Bizarro-World