Thanks for your response!

The folder for this account was originally at
C:\Users\accountname\Favorites, but I wanted to have most of the files for
all user accounts on D partition, so I moved it to D:\Favorites. I thought
this would ease backup and also hoped to have all users access same
favorites. Then I figured out I didn’t really understand how to properly move
the folders, so I left other accounts alone and simply copied the favorites
back to its original site.

As to the other, I read a lot of posts for ideas , and one said to open a
command window, navigate to the folder, then paste in “icacls favorites
/setintegritylevel (OI)(CI)low”.  I did research to find out how to open a
window and looked up the icacls command at
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/library/932d9cc1-3dff-40da-83
5c-1cb0894874f11033.mspx?mfr=true,
and since it seemed OK, played with the syntax till it worked. (Not that I
really understood what I was doing.) Hmm. Maybe I should have tried it on the
original folder site. I'll do that next.

I keep hidden files visible and system only when I need to see them, since
they make a mess and I can’t access most of them. In my fourth day as a VISTA
user I’m still pretty lost. I’m going to buy a book.

Thank you PA Bear and Robert for your responses.

System restore -
would be a pain because setting up user accounts was the first thing I did.
Then I spent the last 3 days installing software and setting up programs for
everyone. But I'll keep it in mind. I might just create a totally new admin
account.

As to how I moved the Favorites file, I just now created a Dummy-user to try
to remember and recreate what I did. It’s been 4 days and 2 complete VISTA
setups on two computers, plus I was really going trial and error. I THOUGHT I
was offered a location option by right-clicking, but I can't get that now, so
I guess I must have used the location tab in properties.
This time I left "D:\Dummy\Favorites" in the dialog box on the location tab
and it worked great.  The file shows in both places, but in the user folder
it shows the path to "D:\Dummy\Favorites".

When I did it before the Favorites folder was gone from the user folder and
lost its blue color on the D drive. Also before I’m sure I was asked what
folder I wanted to put it in during the move and not on the location tab, and
it ended up on the D root. It worked differently when I moved another folder
(documents) and I decided I was messing things up, so I searched help  to
find out how to repair a profile and followed the steps of creating another
temp profile and dragging all its contents (incl. sys/hidden) to the original
user.

While the folders I never messed with in the user folder (Contacts, desktop,
etc.) still have their location tabs, the Favorites folder I have in there
now does not. Also the Favorites moved to the D drive lost its location tab,
but the documents, music and others moved retain a location tab.
Interestingly different also, the dummy-user folder has a folder paths column
which I didn’t create (detail view), whereas the original user folder did not.

I begin to understand from the questions people ask that I’ve really messed
this one up. I’m thinking more than ever that creating a new replacement
admin profile may be the best idea unless I can learn something new by
achieving a fix.

I realized on rereading that Don included a link in his response. I think
I’ll study that page first to see if it is helpful.

Thanks again.