Since my first days of using Windows Vista I have noticed that the "Documents and Settings" folder is somewhat different than it used to be in Windows XP. The main difference is that it no longer exists. Not as a directory at least. The new place for your-everything is now the Users folder - a good choice if you ask me - I've never liked the long name with spaces inside. But how are all the applications that rely on "Documents and Settings" supposed to work? And what is the "Document and Settings" "folder" that we see on our disks?
The answer is simple: symbolic link. A thing that every Linux user knows and loves. A thing that is almost never used on Windows platform.
I have noticed that there are two types of "symbolic links" in use in Windows Vista. If you go to the Users directory using command line and invoke a "dir /a" command, you will get an output similar to the following one:
2007-05-16 17:06 <DIR> .
2007-05-16 17:06 <DIR> ..
2006-11-02 15:02 <SYMLINKD> All Users [C:\ProgramData]
2006-11-02 15:02 <DIR> Default
2006-11-02 15:02 <JUNCTION> Default User [C:\Users\Default]
2006-11-02 14:50 174 desktop.ini
2007-07-11 21:13 <DIR> mikeon
2006-11-02 14:50 <DIR> Public
Notice that the <SYMLINKD> and <JUNCTION>. From what I've been able to learn, the <SYMLINKD> is the new feature in Windows Vista, that replaces the old <JUNCTION>.
So how to create a symbolic link? I've found no way to do it using GUI. The only way I have found is the command line tool "mklink".
Beware however, before using this feature. Some people report that it may not be 100% transparent for your application code. So if you try to get something from "Document and Settings" it may not be there.