• Single left-click the Start button.
• Single left-click Computer to the right of the Start menu

• Double left-click Local Disk (C:\).
  • The drive letter could be different if Microsoft Windows Vista is installed to (D:\) or (E:\). You should navigate accordingly.

• Double left-click the Users folders.
  • Try selecting a different drive from the Computer window if you don’t see a Users folder on Local Disk (C:\).

• Double left-click on the folder containing your user profile. The folder containing my profile is called kandle.
  • It will be a different folder for you.
    • Determine the location and drive letter of your user profile…
    • There may be multiple profile folders that need to be backed up.
    • The Default and Public profile folders generally do not need to be included in your backups. I have not seen your computer so who am I to say. Maybe they do need to be included. When in doubt, include the files or folders you are unsure of into your backups. Better to be safe than sorry.

• The Documents folder is here.

Side Note

Location = c:\Users\ProfileName\Documents

• c:\ is the drive where Microsoft Windows Vista is installed.
• Users is a standard folder in Microsoft Windows Vista which contains a folder for each profile.
  • Default and Public are standard folders in Microsoft Windows Vista. They do not contain your profile information.
• ProfileName should be replaced with your actual profile name.
• Documents is a standard folder in Microsoft Windows Vista.
  • It is the same as the My Documents folder in Microsoft Windows XP.

Links

• Microsoft Windows Vista Home Page
• Microsoft Windows XP Homepage
• Microsoft Windows Vista Wiki

• If you don’t have the Run command in your Start menu.
  • You will need to add the run command to your start menu first.

• Single left-click on the Start button.
• Single left-click on Run.
• The default starting location for the C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe window is C:\Users\ProfileName.
  • It will show the name of the folder containing the user profile of whoever is currently logged into Windows instead of showing the location ProfileName in the path.  It could be anything. Mine is C:\Users\kandle.

• Type echo %username% at the command prompt, at any time, to see your current username if you are ever unsure of which profile to choose.

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6000]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Users\kandle>echo %username%
kandle

C:\Users\kandle>

• Single right-click on the Start button.
• Single left-click on Properties in the pop-up menu that appears.
  • The pop-up menus that show when certain icons and screen areas are right-clicked are also called context menus.

• Single left-click on Customize… next to the Start menu option.

• Scroll down to where you see the Run command option.
• Single left-click the square box in front to select and add the Run command to your Start menu.

• Single left-click OK to close the Customize Start Menu window.

• Single left-click OK to close the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties window.

Links

• Context menu Wiki