Dumb users are dumb:
User: I decided to clean up my hard drive a little bit. Is there any stuff I can safely delete to make more room?
Me: Well, any of your old files that you don’t use - I would back them up and then delete them…
User: Yeah, but other hand that, is there anything I can delete?
Me: Yes, clean out the browser cache and temp files… You can use the free tool at ccleaner.com to do that for you. It’s pretty good at freeing up space this way…
User: Oh, my Norton System Works already has something like that…
Me: Well, then there is not much else you can really do other than uninstalling software you do not use.
User: Well… I noticed I have this folder here and it’s pretty big… It’s almost 15 GB…
Me: Yes?
User: Well, it doesn’t seem to be used for anything. I was wondering if it can be deleted…
Me: What is the folder called?
User: Documents… No, wait… Documents and Settings
Me: [panic mode] Please tell me you didn’t delete that folder!
User: Uh? No, I wanted to ask you first.
Me: Oh, good! Don’t delete it. That is where all your user information is stored, your application settings, your Outlook emails. Also, your My Documents folder is stored in there…
User: Oh, no.. I have the My Documents folder elsewhere.
Me: No, trust me - when you click on the My Documents icon on the desktop it simply takes you to a folder inside Documents and Settings.
User: …
Me: It’s like a shortcut.
User: Um… Ok, if you say so…
Me: So don’t delete anything in that folder.
User: Ok, thanks.
Me: Anything else?
User: No, I think this is all I wanted to ask you about. Bye.
Granted, I don’t think Windows would actually let you delete all of the stuff in Documents and Settings. But with this guy, I’d rather not risk it. It’s the same dude that tried to clean up his HD in the past, by deleting NTLDR.
This is where a two partition scheme would probably work better. Just make C: the system drive, and tell users not to touch it, and set up D: or whatever as their data drive. Relocate My Documents to D: and you are all set. Tell users to install to C but save to D. This might be a worthwhile approach.
But then again, most of my users are smart enough not to delete system files.
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