(Probably) dumb question about Win 10..

Win 10, Home.

My query concerns the Quick Access/Downloads folder, and the Downloads folder within C:\users\[myname]....

My Downloads folder was/is getting chocker...installers, images, pdfs, mp4s - all sorts of stuff.

I've always assumed that the files showing in users\ was a duplicate : by that I mean just another way of finding a file's location, as opposed to taking up twice as much HD space by having the file stored in two locations.

It's time to prune; time for a bit of housekeeping, to clear out zip files, mp4 that I've moved to different folders since downloading, etc.

However, I was surprised to find that the "two" folders are not identical - there are certain files that appear in the QAD folder but don't seem to feature in the users "version"...and vice versa.

Is this normal?

Or have I got the wrong end of the stick completely?!

the "Quick Access" list on the left, is just a 'shortcut' to the users\user\Downloads folder...

If they are reading different, then there may be something for "all users" in there that's showing, as well as anything for your specific user...

Win 10, Home.

My query concerns the Quick Access/Downloads folder, and the Downloads folder within C:\users\[myname]....

My Downloads folder was/is getting chocker...installers, images, pdfs, mp4s - all sorts of stuff.

I've always assumed that the files showing in users\ was a duplicate : by that I mean just another way of finding a file's location, as opposed to taking up twice as much HD space by having the file stored in two locations.

It's time to prune; time for a bit of housekeeping, to clear out zip files, mp4 that I've moved to different folders since downloading, etc.

However, I was surprised to find that the "two" folders are not identical - there are certain files that appear in the QAD folder but don't seem to feature in the users "version"...and vice versa.

Is this normal?

Or have I got the wrong end of the stick completely?!

The Quick Access icons are just shortcuts to folders on your machine; you can add/remove them as you want to without affecting the target folder. Right click on one of the quick access folders and it will tell you where it points to, by selecting Properties from the popup menu and looking at the Location tab.

Depending on how the machine has been set up, you might have a Downloads folder on your [name] profile but the Quick Access shortcut points to another profile, like [administrator] or something.

Thanks, both - very informative and helpful.

Working in a mixed environment of 7 and 10 I was trying to create a shortcut as you would in 7 on Favourites bit of Explorer - don't do it in 10 or it will attempt to copy everything across - that's when I discovered the 'Quick Access' - how stupid to change something after all these years - 'Quick Access' = 'Shortcut'!

Another bit of advice on Windows 10 - Skype for Win 10 is awful - because it believes that face recognition using a webcam on a notebook is in use by it!

Working in a mixed environment of 7 and 10 I was trying to create a shortcut as you would in 7 on Favourites bit of Explorer - don't do it in 10 or it will attempt to copy everything across - that's when I discovered the 'Quick Access' - how stupid to change something after all these years - 'Quick Access' = 'Shortcut'!

Talking of copying, I've got four - correction, five - email accounts, and at the time of switchover to 10, I used outlook to receive/send.

Playing with 10 on (my) day 1, I came across the "advantage" of having a new account, i.e. x@outlook.com, which would gather all my mail together....

"Sounds good", thought I... and went for it.

I sat and watched as x@outlook.com downed hundreds upon hundreds of emails, dating back God knows how long, and then duplicated every single email received by the individual accounts.

Spending more minutes than I care to admit getting shut of them all, I soon ditched the idea, but it - I - also managed to screw my old Outlook system to boot, so I switched to Thunderbird...and have stuck with it!

Good choice!