Hi

C:\users is the folder of all user profiles already connected on this PC. If you want backup user profile and data you should backup the content of this folder.

Please don’t forget to accept helpful answer

Yes, %LocalAppData%\Programs is the default folder to "install programs for a single user only" in MS Windows. It's been available since Windows 7/Windows Server 2008 R2.

Such programs are often called Per-User Applications (PUA) in MS documents. While the knowledge about the existence of PUA now is widely spread, many still are not aware of the infrastructure, environment, and tools that MS provided to support them. The folder in question is a part of that infrastructure.

Note: This folder may have a different name depending on the specific Windows setup. The programs should use the corresponding KNOWNFOLDERID constant FOLDERID_UserProgramFiles to locate it properly.

References:

• Windows Installer Documentation → About Windows Installer → Installation Context
• The Windows Shell Documentation → Shell Constants, Enumerations and Flags → KNOWNFOLDERID → FOLDERID_UserProgramFiles

Hi Kirk,

I'm Rodrigo and I will help you.

The right variable to use is %username% instead of %user%

Hmm, yeah that looks like it should be OK to me. Or at least nothing is jumping out.

Is it just the one user on that machine that runs into this problem or do other users get the same sort of thing?

If it’s the one user I think my next stop would be the registry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

In there should be all of the redirects. Could be that something has gotten stuck on something and could be corrected.

If it’s multiple users I guess RSOP on that machine would be my next port of call.

Only C:\ProgramData actually exists as a "real" folder. C:\Users\All Users is a symbolic link to C:\ProgramData. That is, C:\Users\All Users points to C:\ProgramData, so if you navigate to the former, you are automatically redirected to the latter. That is why they appear identical.

C:\ProgramData is known as the "All Users Profile" and is required for the correct operation of Windows 7. Please do not delete it, if Windows even lets you.

C:\Users\All Users is there for backward compatibility. Poorly-written applications do not retrieve the path of the All Users Profile correctly. They say, "Windows, give me the name of the profiles directory." Windows says, "C:\Users." And the program says, "Okay, I know the All Users profile is called All Users and it's inside the profiles directory, so it must be C:\Users\All Users." Really, what the program should say to Windows is, "Windows, give me the path of the all users profile," to which Windows would say, "C:\ProgramData."

Is there an environment variable that by points to

C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Temp

No

Or maybe

C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\local\Temp

The default value for %TEMP% and %TMP% is C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Temp

Windows 7 Environment variables

Variable                   Windows Vista/7
%ALLUSERSPROFILE% 
(%PROGRAMDATA%)            C:\ProgramData
%APPDATA%                  C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming
%COMPUTERNAME%             {computername}
%COMMONPROGRAMFILES%       C:\Program Files\Common Files
%COMMONPROGRAMFILES(x86)%  C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files
%COMSPEC%                  C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe
%HOMEDRIVE%                C:
%HOMEPATH%                 \Users\{username}
%LOCALAPPDATA%             C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local
%LOGONSERVER%              \\{domain_logon_server}
%PATH%                     C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;{plus program paths}
%PATHEXT%                  .com;.exe;.bat;.cmd;.vbs;.vbe;.js;.jse;.wsf;.wsh;.msc
%PROGRAMFILES%             C:\Program Files
%PROGRAMFILES(X86)%        C:\Program Files (x86) (only in 64-bit version)
%PROMPT%                   Code for current command prompt format. Code is usually $P$G
%SystemDrive%              C:
%SystemRoot%               C:\Windows
%TEMP% and %TMP%           C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Temp
%USERDOMAIN%               {userdomain}
%USERNAME%                 {username}
%USERPROFILE%              C:\Users\{username}
%WINDIR%                   C:\Windows
%PUBLIC%                   C:\Users\Public
%PROGRAMDATA%              C:\ProgramData
%PSModulePath%             %SystemRoot%\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules\

Source Windows 7 Environment variables

Three ways to do this using the os module:

1. Use os.getlogin():

import os
>>> os.path.join("C:", os.sep, "Users", os.getlogin(), "Desktop")
'C:\\Users\\your_username\\Desktop'

2. Use os.environ():

>>> os.path.join(os.environ['userprofile'], "Desktop")
'C:\\Users\\your_username\\Desktop'

3. Use os.path.exapndvars():

>>> os.path.join(os.path.expandvars("%userprofile%"), "Desktop")
'C:\\Users\\your_username\\Desktop'

On Windows 11, at least, C:\Users\Default is an actual directory.  And C:\Users\Default User is a link to C:\Users\Default.

What I need is a folder filled with .txt files with the name of each computer name that is in the ComputerUp.txt file

Using the file system for this is unnecessary - you can store this information in a variable in-memory instead:

# Read the list of computers from disk
$Computers = Get-Content .\path\to\ComputerUp.txt

# Create a dictionary to hold ComputerName->ListOfUsers data
$UsersPerComputer = [ordered]@{}

foreach($computer in $Computers){
  # enumerate the remote folder names
  $listOfNames = Get-ChildItem \\$Computer\C$\Users |Select-Object -ExpandProperty Name

  # assign the list to the dictionary, use the computer name as the key
  $UsersPerComputer[$computer] = $listOfNames
}

Now you can retrieve the list for a single computer by name:

$targetMachine = 'Computer123'

$UsersPerComputer[$targetMachine] # this will resolve to the list of user folder names we got from Computer123

How do I know which account is my current Users account? 

Press the Windows key + R, then type one or the other of these commands:

cmd  /c  echo  %UserName%  & pause

(to see your account name)

cmd  /c  echo  %UserProfile%  & pause

(to see the name of your profile folder)

Please remember to mark my reply by clicking "Did this solve your problem?".

Hi Bob,

I am Sumit, an Independent Advisor and a 2-Year Windows Insider MVP here to help.

Users folder contain the user information about the persons who use the computer.

Inside that folder, it would have your user profile folder that contains your files, including Desktop, downloads, Documents, etc.

You should NOT try to delete any folder inside C: drive(even if it is possible by chance) unless you want to break Windows.