Redirection of Folders on Client PCs

Whenever I make a connection to a client PC running Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2), my personal files appear in the client PC's Internet Explorer (IE) history folder and Temporary Internet Files folder. All other folders seem to display correctly. Do you know what's going on?

This mysterious redirection occurs when you use a direct Uniform Naming Convention (UNC) path to a remote special Windows Explorer folder such as Temporary Internet Files, Tasks, My Briefcase, or Fonts. These folders contain special types of information and have properties that differentiate them from regular folders. In particular, they contain a desktop.ini file that holds information about the parent folder and its special Class ID (CLSID). The CLSID identifies to Windows the portion of the Windows Explorer shell interface in which the folder resides. (Desktop.ini is also present in customized folders on Windows 2000, NT, and Win9x systems that have the Windows Desktop Update installed.)

If the folder that isn't displaying correctly isn't one of the special folders listed above, you can delete the desktop.ini file to remedy the problem. Otherwise, you shouldn't delete the file. Rather, you should share and map the remote folder (or one beneath it) to a drive letter on your local system. After doing so, you should be able to view the remote folder without any problems.