I am very confused by the Security Menus on Properties on Windows 7 and the relationship between User Accounts and the User Folders in Windows C Drive (I am using Windows 7 Home Premium on a Mesh Computer). All the accounts mentioned, except the Guest Account which is not enabled, are or were, password protected.
I cannot tell whether the menu is referring to the Admin Account set up as a normal user account with admin privileges or to the built-in administrator account - or to a GROUP of some kind to which these accounts belong.
My admin user account is entitled "M......-.PC Administrator" - no quotes - but on the Security Menus (for example under Windows C: Properties) I see Administrators (M....- PC \Administrators) - notice now in the plural. M.......is my first name. Is this a GROUP name to which the Admin User Account and/or the built-in Admin account belong or not ? On my DATA M file (which contains most of my personal files and records) I have in addition "Users (M....-PC Users)"
My User Folder does not seem to bear any relation to the User Accounts listed on Control Panel (see below). In my efforts to sort out access to various folders, I discovered that somehow (probably result of too many System Restores) I had acquired a User Account M......... which did not appear on the Control Panel List - however the files in this folder seem to behave as though they are part of the M.....-PC Admin account. They don`t all appear in M......-PC and some can only be accessed in M...........folder when logged in as M.....-PC Administrator. I tried to get rid of the plain M......... User Folder without success (transferring its documents etc. to M..........-PC etc. but temporarily lost my desk top folder in the process). I also tried setting up 2 additional ACCOUNTS with admin privileges called BB and Ge, with a view to deleting M.......... and M.-PC (after transferring folders and contents to BB) but this did not work either so I deleted BB and Ge from Control Panel User Accounts. I set up a Standard User Account (called G......... M....) which works fairly well though I have had difficulty accessing some folders when logged in as Standard User - get error message Windows cannot write to this file. For example, I cannot access my Moneysoft Programmes without logging in as M.....-PC Administrator.
Today my User FOLDER looks like this: (my User Accounts show only M..-PC Administrator and G....M....Standard User)
All Users
BB.........
Default
Default User
Ge
G.............. M............
Guest
M..........
M..........Administrator
M.........-PC
Public
They all contain a lot of folders - Ge.....was an admin account set up to enable transferring files from M...-PC and M..... to BB.
If this had been successful I would have deleted M........... and M-PC Admin but in the event it turned out to be too risky. I was in danger of losing records I need.
Both BB and Ge..... have been REMOVED from User Accounts but the folders remain. I am uncertain whether I can just delete these folders.
My questions are:
a) What are the Default and Default Users folders for - do I need to concern myself with them ?
b) What is the Public Folder for - do I need to concern myself with this ?
c) Can I simply delete the BB and Ge........ User Folders ?
d) How can I determine whether accounts mentioned under Properties/Security are a GROUP of accounts, or a single built-in admin account or a single user admin account. If it is a GROUP of accounts, how can I establish which single accounts are included.
e) Is there any way I can sort this mess out without re-installing Windows 7.
f) If I re-install Windows 7 and want to keep some of the Documents and Downloads presently under M........User Folder and M.-PC Administrator User Folder would I simply transfer the problem with them ?