The translation of a user-shell-folder is lost

In a Dutch installation of Windows-10 I had originally correct Dutch names for the user-shell folders like 'Documents' and 'Pictures', ie. in Dutch 'Documenten' and 'Afbeeldingen'.

Unfortunately I deleted or moved a folder in a certain situation that I do not remember. And now the 'Pictures' user-shell-folder is not displayed in Dutch anymore but just in English. The other ones are still displayed in Dutch.

I looked in the registry, in a hidden folder for libraries, I tried a hidden 'desktop.ini' file, I can't solve it. My aim is to restore the translation of 'Pictures' into Dutch ('Afbeeldingen').

EDIT:

I solved this by deleting and recreating my user profile.
However after some time the exact same situation occured.
So please note that editing the registry, editing desktop.ini doesn't solve the issue.
Under c:\users\loginname all user profile folders are translated and have the standard windows icon, except the pictues folder, which is not translated and does not have an icon.

Gerard

Posted 2016-02-29T19:02:15.390

Reputation: 103

Answers

Try this :

In folder C:\Users\YOURNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Libraries\, delete Desktop.ini (or better - first rename it).
Use regedit to go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders and delete the entry My Pictures.
Ensure that in the registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders there is an entry for My Pictures and is pointing to C:\Users\YOURNAME\Pictures.

Take backups of everything before, and also create first a System Restore point, just in case. Test the above points one-by-one in their order, rebooting each time, and stop with the first one that works. Undo the ones that do not help.

harrymc

Posted 2016-02-29T19:02:15.390

Reputation: 306 093

This actually works (in my case). Unfortunately I did all 3 steps at once, so I cannot judge the effect of each step. The changes are not restored by windows, but apparantly no harm done. – Gerard – 2016-04-13T21:36:11.277

The desktop.ini contents for Pictures folder is below:

[.ShellClassInfo]
LocalizedResourceName=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-21779 InfoTip=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-12688 IconResource=%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-113 IconFile=%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll IconIndex=-236

The LocalizedResourceName is important. To write to desktop ini, remove SYSTEM and HIDDEN attributes, update the contents, and then add back those attributes (using the Attrib.exe command)

w32sh

Posted 2016-02-29T19:02:15.390

Reputation: 8 611

Unfortunately it doesn't work. Also this was already the content of this file. – Gerard – 2016-03-01T17:44:27.740

Another thing is "Pictures" folder should have the "R" attribute set. You can check that by typing this in Command Prompt:

attrib %userprofile%\pictures

And to set the R attribute if it's missing, type:

attrib +r %userprofile%\pictures – w32sh – 2016-04-11T14:14:52.663

Unfortunately this doesn't make a difference. Also the %userprofile% shortcut doesn't work (win-10), one must type the full path. – Gerard – 2016-04-13T21:25:39.373

That's an important hint as far as I know. Try SET command in Command Prompt. This lists the env. variables in the system. Fixing %userprofile% might fix the problem in your original post. – w32sh – 2016-04-14T05:51:15.610

No there is nothing wrong with the %userprofile% shortcut, what I meant to say, is that the attrib command seems to not support it. – Gerard – 2016-04-14T07:25:55.523

Works fine here, Gerard. Let's know if you got any error when running that command. – w32sh – 2016-04-14T07:40:20.937