Unable to Use the My Documents Shortcut on the Desktop

ID: Q189952

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows 98

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about editing the registry. Before you edit the registry, make sure you understand how to restore it if a problem occurs. For information about how to do this, view the "Restoring the Registry" Help topic in Regedit.exe or the "Restoring a Registry Key" Help topic in Regedt32.exe.

SYMPTOMS

When you double-click or right-click the My Documents shortcut on the desktop, you may receive the following error message:

Explorer
This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down.

If you then click Details, you may see either of the following informational messages:

Explorer caused a stack fault in module KERNEL32.DLL at <address>

Explorer caused a stack fault in module SHDOCVW.DLL at <address>

CAUSE

This problem can occur if the value of the Personal value in the following registry key does not have the path to the My Documents folder or is blank:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

RESOLUTION

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the "Changing Keys And Values" Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) or the "Add and Delete Information in the Registry" and "Edit Registry Data" Help topics in Regedt32.exe. Note that you should back up the registry before you edit it.

To resolve this problem, restart your computer, and then use Registry Editor to view the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

Modify the value of the Personal value to be the path to the My Documents folder (by default, this is c:\My Documents).

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows 98.

MORE INFORMATION

For related information about a similar issue, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

ARTICLE-ID: Q188604
TITLE : Problems When You Click Find Target on a Desktop Shortcut

Additional query words: 98


Keywords          : kbenv kberrmsg kbui win98 
Version           : WINDOWS:
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbprb

Last Reviewed: February 12, 1999