Reparse me at a Junction, please.

I am losing my mind.

In Windows Explorer I could not find "AppDat"

and DIR says there is no such thing as "AppData"

but DIR/ad says there are some animals called "Junctions"
One "Junction" is "AppData" and has what I was looking for.

In 47 words of less, please, what the hell is this
"Junction" "Reparse" thing? When was it born -- Win7?

(I found my "AppData" only by being an old Dosser.)

(never mind why I was looking for it)

P.S. Google and Microsoft only babbled to me.

masonc wrote:
I am losing my mind.

In Windows Explorer I could not find "AppDat"

and DIR says there is no such thing as "AppData"

but DIR/ad says there are some animals called "Junctions"
One "Junction" is "AppData" and has what I was looking for.

In 47 words of less, please, what the hell is this
"Junction" "Reparse" thing? When was it born -- Win7?

(I found my "AppData" only by being an old Dosser.)

(never mind why I was looking for it)

P.S. Google and Microsoft only babbled to me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_reparse_point

NTFS reparse point (a container), can contain

NTFS symbolic links
directory junction points ---
volume mount points
hard links (across volumes)

The directory junction point is handy for moving
a data folder.

*******

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/...rnals/bb896768

junction -s C:\

Like icacls, you might be able to "see" around
62 of those below C: . That might be the number
you'd see after a fresh install (before adding
more accounts).

I don't think junction.exe is general purpose.
And I don't know of another utility that carefully
identifies file system objects, without a lot
of hair loss. The reason icacls "recognizes" junction
points, is it throws an error for each one located :-)
So you're relying on a side effect there, to spot
abnormal stuff.

*******

If you turn on the right options in an Explorer window,
you *can* see Appdata. You can make hidden or system
objects visible, and turn on file extensions. And that
is better than dealing with stuff via DOS emulation.

Paul

On Wed, 10 Aug 2016 02:46:46 -0400, Paul
wrote:
snip snip

If you turn on the right options in an Explorer window,
you *can* see Appdata. You can make hidden or system
objects visible, and turn on file extensions. And that
is better than dealing with stuff via DOS emulation.

Paul

Thanks,but I can find no such option. (win7pro build 7601)

"dir/ad" in dos is the only way I know \Appdata\ exists.
(long live dos)

masonc wrote:
On Wed, 10 Aug 2016 02:46:46 -0400, Paul
wrote:
snip snip

If you turn on the right options in an Explorer window,
you *can* see Appdata. You can make hidden or system
objects visible, and turn on file extensions. And that
is better than dealing with stuff via DOS emulation.

Paul

Thanks,but I can find no such option. (win7pro build 7601)

"dir/ad" in dos is the only way I know \Appdata\ exists.
(long live dos)

This picture doesn't drill all the way down,
but it's a start.

https://s32.postimg.org/njjjxoout/foldermagic.gif

The trick with the modern OSes, is finding the interface
decoration with the Options on it. It's usually hiding
in the ribbon somewhere, either on the left or on the right.

In that picture, in "Folder Options", the "View" tab has
a list of viewing options for folders. You can apply
a set of viewing options to all folders. Making all
file extensions appear, all system files appear,
all hidden folders appear.

So in that picture, I didn't open the "View" tab, to
show the list with all the radio buttons in it. But
that's the one you want.

This is an example of Folder Options : View . Examine
it carefully, and everything you need is here.

http://www.bleepstatic.com/tutorials...er_options.jpg

Note - if you turn on the "show system items" type button,
then every "desktop.ini" file that is hidden, will
decide to appear. And there will be two
scummy desktop.ini icons to litter your desktop. But,
I prefer that, to not being able to see something.

Paul

masonc formulated on Wednesday :
On Wed, 10 Aug 2016 02:46:46 -0400, Paul
wrote:
snip snip

If you turn on the right options in an Explorer window,
you *can* see Appdata. You can make hidden or system
objects visible, and turn on file extensions. And that
is better than dealing with stuff via DOS emulation.

Paul

Thanks,but I can find no such option. (win7pro build 7601)

"dir/ad" in dos is the only way I know \Appdata\ exists.
(long live dos)

I don't know if you are a fan of third party applicatins, but here's
one that has become one of my favorites. It's a freeware called
StExBar and it includes quite a few options that make tasks like
show/hide hidden folders, show/hide file extensions as simple as a
click of button.

http://stefanstools.sourceforge.net/StExBar.html

--
Zo

REDUNDANCY: An airbag in a politician's car.

On Tue, 09 Aug 2016 21:45:07 -0700, masonc wrote:

and DIR says there is no such thing as "AppData"

Maybe you're at the wrong path?

Make sure the current working directory is your user's profile directory
when you type "dir/ad". e.g.

C:\Users\masoncdir/ad

To quickly check the "AppData" directory presence by displaying its
contents, type in e.g.

C:\Users\masoncdir/ad appdata

Note: don't put "\" before the "appdata" because "\appdata" (or "\appdata\")
is same as "c:\appdata" if the drive letter of the current working directory
is "C:". The directory part of the current working directory are ignored.

but DIR/ad says there are some animals called "Junctions"
One "Junction" is "AppData" and has what I was looking for.

In 47 words of less, please, what the hell is this
"Junction" "Reparse" thing? When was it born -- Win7?

A junction is a directory entry that points to another directory. Think of
it as a bridge or a shortcut, in layman's term. If you enter that, you'll
end up in the directory that is pointed by the junction.

A reparse point is the base type of junctions. It can be either a junction
or a symbolic link. Like a generic model for bridge types. Explaining more
about this would can get complicated, so I'll skip that. Think of it as a
new type of file system object - as an additional type to just files and
directories like back in the old DOS days.

I hope this doesn't confuses you more.

On Thu, 11 Aug 2016 00:51:03 +0700, JJ wrote:

On Tue, 09 Aug 2016 21:45:07 -0700, masonc wrote:

and DIR says there is no such thing as "AppData"

Maybe you're at the wrong path?

Make sure the current working directory is your user's profile directory
when you type "dir/ad". e.g.

C:\Users\masoncdir/ad

To quickly check the "AppData" directory presence by displaying its
contents, type in e.g.

C:\Users\masoncdir/ad appdata

Note: don't put "\" before the "appdata" because "\appdata" (or "\appdata\")
is same as "c:\appdata" if the drive letter of the current working directory
is "C:". The directory part of the current working directory are ignored.

but DIR/ad says there are some animals called "Junctions"
One "Junction" is "AppData" and has what I was looking for.

In 47 words of less, please, what the hell is this
"Junction" "Reparse" thing? When was it born -- Win7?

A junction is a directory entry that points to another directory. Think of
it as a bridge or a shortcut, in layman's term. If you enter that, you'll
end up in the directory that is pointed by the junction.

A reparse point is the base type of junctions. It can be either a junction
or a symbolic link. Like a generic model for bridge types. Explaining more
about this would can get complicated, so I'll skip that. Think of it as a
new type of file system object - as an additional type to just files and
directories like back in the old DOS days.

I hope this doesn't confuses you more.

Thanks, not possible.
What bugs me is when dos dir or MyCompute or Windows Explorer or
whatever, hides stuff.
I understand a need to hide "untouchables" but hiding my data???
How do I know if its hiding or if the data really doesn't exist???

masonc wrote:
On Thu, 11 Aug 2016 00:51:03 +0700, JJ wrote:

On Tue, 09 Aug 2016 21:45:07 -0700, masonc wrote:
and DIR says there is no such thing as "AppData"
Maybe you're at the wrong path?

Make sure the current working directory is your user's profile directory
when you type "dir/ad". e.g.

C:\Users\masoncdir/ad

To quickly check the "AppData" directory presence by displaying its
contents, type in e.g.

C:\Users\masoncdir/ad appdata

Note: don't put "\" before the "appdata" because "\appdata" (or "\appdata\")
is same as "c:\appdata" if the drive letter of the current working directory
is "C:". The directory part of the current working directory are ignored.

but DIR/ad says there are some animals called "Junctions"
One "Junction" is "AppData" and has what I was looking for.

In 47 words of less, please, what the hell is this
"Junction" "Reparse" thing? When was it born -- Win7?
A junction is a directory entry that points to another directory. Think of
it as a bridge or a shortcut, in layman's term. If you enter that, you'll
end up in the directory that is pointed by the junction.

A reparse point is the base type of junctions. It can be either a junction
or a symbolic link. Like a generic model for bridge types. Explaining more
about this would can get complicated, so I'll skip that. Think of it as a
new type of file system object - as an additional type to just files and
directories like back in the old DOS days.

I hope this doesn't confuses you more.

Thanks, not possible.
What bugs me is when dos dir or MyCompute or Windows Explorer or
whatever, hides stuff.
I understand a need to hide "untouchables" but hiding my data???
How do I know if its hiding or if the data really doesn't exist???

You can try voidtools Everything, run in command line mode.
In somewhere between 2-10 seconds, it'll produce a file list.
It is supposed to get at least some of the info, by reading
the $MFT directly. You would use this from an administrator
Command Prompt. This is unlike a lot of other tools,
that traverse the file system one file at a time.

Everything.exe -create-filelist output.txt "C:"

http://www.voidtools.com/support/everything/file_lists/

http://www.voidtools.com/downloads/

So far, no tool gives you exactly every file
on the disk. Each utility is always a few files
short of a full load. For example, System Volume Information
(containing shadow files) is guarded pretty carefully. I
managed to trash Windows 7 so it would no longer boot,
by sneaking in there (using Linux) :-) And, I was only
*reading* files, not writing them. That's the scary part.

Paul

On Wed, 10 Aug 2016 22:22:14 -0700, masonc wrote:

What bugs me is when dos dir or MyCompute or Windows Explorer or
whatever, hides stuff.
I understand a need to hide "untouchables" but hiding my data???
How do I know if its hiding or if the data really doesn't exist???


Control Panel Folder Options View (tab)
(x) Show hidden files, folders and drives



--
Kind regards
Ralph

On Wed, 10 Aug 2016 22:22:14 -0700, masonc wrote:

Thanks, not possible.
What bugs me is when dos dir or MyCompute or Windows Explorer or
whatever, hides stuff.
I understand a need to hide "untouchables" but hiding my data???

Logically for AppData directory, it shouldn't be hidden. But AppData
contains application data including those used by Windows' built in
applications which can be considered important part of the OS. For example,
Start Menu shortcuts, DRM licenses, credentials, etc.

Microsoft simply decided to hide the whole AppData directory to make sure
that they can't be easily tampered - which is enough for users who aren't
familiar with computers (to prevent accidents). This decision is probably
based on user feedbacks or survey where most of the problems are due to
tampering of these files - either on purpose, or by accident. A similar
thing why Microsoft decided to protect the Windows SYSTEM32 directory from
the Windows Explorer.

How do I know if its hiding or if the data really doesn't exist???

By default Windows Explorer hides all files that have Hidden or System
attribute. To make it show all files and subdirectories, follow Paul's
instruction related to folder options and DESKTOP.INI file.

The command prompt by default, doesn't include Hidden or System
files/subdirectories when you use the DIR command. There's no setting for
this, so you'll need to use the DIR command's /A, /AD, or /A-D switch. You
can assign this switch (or any other switches) to the DIRCMD environment
variable as the default switches for the DIR command so that all new CMD
processes will have the DIRCMD environment variable. CMD processes that are
already running are not affected.

http://i.imgur.com/J2koXHN.jpg

Alternatively, you can use ATTRIB to list directory contents, but it'll only
show file names and their attributes.

On Thu, 11 Aug 2016 19:58:29 +1200, Ralph Fox
wrote:

On Wed, 10 Aug 2016 22:22:14 -0700, masonc wrote:

What bugs me is when dos dir or MyCompute or Windows Explorer or
whatever, hides stuff.
I understand a need to hide "untouchables" but hiding my data???
How do I know if its hiding or if the data really doesn't exist???


Control Panel Folder Options View (tab)
(x) Show hidden files, folders and drives

Thank you very much. That solved my mystery.
("Show all folders" in "Navigation pane" didn't do it, so misled me.)

masonc wrote in
:

I am losing my mind.

In Windows Explorer I could not find "AppDat"

and DIR says there is no such thing as "AppData"

but DIR/ad says there are some animals called "Junctions"
One "Junction" is "AppData" and has what I was looking for.

In 47 words of less, please, what the hell is this
"Junction" "Reparse" thing? When was it born -- Win7?

(I found my "AppData" only by being an old Dosser.)

(never mind why I was looking for it)

P.S. Google and Microsoft only babbled to me.

Junctions have been around since Windows 2000 (before XP), but each
version of Windows makes more use of them. They're a feature of the
NTFS file system.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_junction_point
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_reparse_point

On 10/08/2016 05:45, masonc wrote:
I am losing my mind.

In Windows Explorer I could not find "AppDat"

and DIR says there is no such thing as "AppData"

but DIR/ad says there are some animals called "Junctions"
One "Junction" is "AppData" and has what I was looking for.

In 47 words of less, please, what the hell is this
"Junction" "Reparse" thing? When was it born -- Win7?

(I found my "AppData" only by being an old Dosser.)

(never mind why I was looking for it)

P.S. Google and Microsoft only babbled to me.


As far as I know AppData shouldn't be a junction in Windows 7.

It is a hidden directory.

--

Brian Gregory (in the UK).
To email me please remove all the letter vee from my email address.