Desktop Icons for different users

We have a new laptop shared among four users each with our own user account.
Only mine has administrative priviledges. When I installed software and
added shortcuts to my desktop they show up on the other three as well. Now,
my wife and sons don't care to have my shortcuts on their desktops so my son
tried deleting them from his. He was not allowed to without my
administrative permission, which I gave, but then I discovered that the
shortcuts were deleted from my desktop (and the other two) as well. What's
the point of having your own user account if you have to have the same
shortcuts on the desktop?
Anybody have any suggestions? It's not a big deal but an annoyance.

Ranfred wrote:

> We have a new laptop shared among four users each with our own user
> account. Only mine has administrative priviledges. When I installed
> software and added shortcuts to my desktop they show up on the other
> three as well. Now, my wife and sons don't care to have my shortcuts on
> their desktops so my son tried deleting them from his. He was not
> allowed to without my administrative permission, which I gave, but then
> I discovered that the shortcuts were deleted from my desktop (and the
> other two) as well. What's the point of having your own user account if
> you have to have the same shortcuts on the desktop?
> Anybody have any suggestions? It's not a big deal but an annoyance.

This is a situation where the software you installed put the icons in
the "All Users" area. The way to solve this would be for you to move the
icons from the All Users area to your specifi user's Start Menu. There's
nothing you can do about where the software put the icons because that
bit is coded into the programs' installation routines. So you need to
move the icons.

The new location in Vista for the all users start menu is:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu. You can click Start and
then right click All Programs and select Explore All Users and get to
the same location.

The user specific start menu folder is in
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Window s\Start Menu.



Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User