SharedDocuments on Windows Issue

General
#1

I have a client that is getting strange results when my program calls SpecialFolder.SharedDocuments, on his XP machine. I have a bunch of questions.

First, the name: In the docs, it says that it points to \AllUsers\Documents. However, on all my XP machines here it shows it as \AllUsers\Shared Documents. Its not just Xojo that says this, Microsoft’s docs say Documents too, plus it says it in the registry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders. I assume this is just a Windows kludge, or is it?

Second, why would someone not have a AllUsers profile on their machine? Isn’t this an “always” for any Windows install? I understand that there’s always a possibility for any SpecialFolder property/method to result in Nil, but this client has a fresh install of Windows and it seems weird that this wouldn’t be available to him.

#2

I never use this shared folder, but I’ve just looked at my Xp systems…

On my XP (pro) systems the folder is …\all users\documents and is reported, correctly, as this by Xojo.

BUT windows explorer lists it as Shared Documents - but this is some kind of alias ( the share name is Shared Documents too )
If you double-click Shared Documents you actually get to the …\all users\documents folder

I have never seen an XP system with no All Users profile - though it does not always have that name
( I have one re-built system where it is called …\All Users.WINDOWS\… )

#3