What does a tiny person icon in front of a folder icon mean in Windows Explorer, Win 7?

Question

Please consider the following screen shot from Win 7 Windows Explorer:

I'm puzzled by "rcook", particularly by the little figure in front of the yellow folder. The figure resembles one Windows uses to represent a "user" on the system. It is also at the same level as Libraries, Computer, etc. under Desktop, but it does not show up as an icon on my desk top, only in Windows explorer.

'rcook' is my username; I'm sure I created this at some point, but I don't remember. It represents a folder, and the contents of the folder are exactly the same as a normal folder under 'Users' on my disk.

If I right-click on this and select delete, will it delete the files in the folder that it represents? I'd like to get rid of this (which appears to me to be some kind of link file to the real one), but I don't want to delete all the files. If I can't do that, is there some other way to get rid of whatever this is?

As a side issue: is there a list of Windows Explorer icons somewhere so I could look up things like this? I looked for one of those and didn't find one.

Solution

This is the same as the folder under 'Users' on your disk. The desktop icon acts as a shortcut to your account's "home" directory; it is similar in purpose to the "My Documents" icon in XP and earlier releases, or to the "home directory" on Linux.

Just like "Computer" and other icons, it can be enabled to show up on the actual desktop, and it will always show up under the "Desktop" folder.

Comments

[rcook]

Well, at least I didn't delete it. I guess my real problem is that, if the last time I used W Explorer I had this folder expanded (which, of course, would happen any time I accessed any of its subfolders), then the next time I use windows+e to open windows explorer, it opens with this folder expanded and the default selection below that at "computer", and I find that annoying. What I want is almost always above that point. Can I set Win+E so that it does the same thing as clicking on the windows explorer task bar icon, so that it opens at "libraries"?