Windows 7 user folder hidden

Question

A friend has a problem with her Windows 7 computer. Her user folder has disappeared from C:\Users. She can login, all files are there, but the folder is not visible inside the Users folder.

A week ago she had troubles logging in. Her profile was replaced with a temporary one. I've used regedit to restore the profile, and she can login again and everything worked. Except that her User folder stayed hidden, but I didn't notice this last week.

Today she let me know that Windows Photo Gallery had lost all photos. It turned out that no pictures were lost, but Photo Gallery couldn't use the pictures folder anymore, because it was hidden. It is not hidden when I open Explorer, and I can open the folder, double click any image and then browse the pictures using Photo Gallery. Except when I open Photo Gallery none of the pictures from the Pictures folder are visible in it.

How can I make her user folder visible again, making Photo Gallery work again?

Solution 1

Try this.

If you haven't done so already, in Explorer, go under Tools -> Folder Options -> View Tab -> Advanced Settings -> Hidden files and folders -> Show hidden files, folders and drives. Click OK.

Browse to C:\Users and see if her user directory is shown. If it is hidden, it will be there, but the icon will be transparant. Right click on her directory, and select properties. Under the General Tab, Uncheck Hidden, and click OK.

Solution 2

Most probably Pictures folder is mapped to the temporary user profile that was created.

Check where the Pictures folder is pointing to by right clicking Pictures Folder -> Properties -> Location.

If it does not point to the correct folder, change it.