Need Opera to change paths for its Profile and Cache

nei1

nei1

https://forums.opera.com/post/discussion

Hi there. WinXP.

There's only one account on the computer, an administrator account.

I just changed the name on the account in Settings > User Accounts.

I was annoyed that the user's folder under Windows Explorer > Documents and Settings wasn't automatically renamed with the new account name; it still had the old name. I tried to rename the folder manually to match the new user account name, but Windows said it was busy, or something like that, and wouldn't let me change the folder's name.

So I rebooted in Safe Mode. Then I was able to change the name of the user's folder under Documents and Settings.

The computer got pretty messed up. But I had a recent registry saved, and that restored a lot of the computer settings the way it used to be.

Windows Explorer still shows a folder inside Documents and Settings with the old user name, but it is mostly empty with a few default files. And my new user-name-folder is also there, with all 38 GB of old contents inside (whew!).

Problem is that the Opera paths (Profile and Cache) are still pointing at the mostly-empty folder under Documents and Settings with the old user name. So Opera isn't providing my settings or million bookmarks anymore, because they're in the new folder.

So, the whole computer is pretty much switched over to the new account and the new folder in Windows Explorer > Documents and Settings. Except Opera, which is still working with the old path, old user account, etc.

How can I change Opera paths so that it looks at the New user folder(s)? I hope it will be that easy. I would like access to my bookmarks. Add-ons would be nice. History would be nice.

Thanks a bunch,
-neil-

nei1

nei1

I tried un-installing Opera (saved user data) and re-installing it.

And it's still using the old path for Profile and Cache.

leocg

leocg Moderator Volunteer

How can I change Opera paths so that it looks at the New user folder(s)?

You can't. You can use a command line to point to the desired profile folder.

I tried un-installing Opera (saved user data) and re-installing it.
And it's still using the old path for Profile and Cache.

That's strange. What about other programs?

Try un-installing Opera with Revo un-installer so leftovers on the registry will also be deleted.

nei1

nei1

Hi Leocg. You wrote:

Revo un-installer so leftovers on the registry will also be deleted

Do you promise that won't erase my user data? Maybe if I back up the desired Profile and Cache paths, so after Revo and re-installing, I can paste the old folders/files back in?

Also, you said I can't tell Opera to use a different path for Profile and Cache, but I can use a command line. I'm not sure what you're suggesting there. Is there a command line command which will permanently change the path? I'm pretty sure I would need help writing that command.

Thanks; Happy Tuesday.

-neil-

g00g00

g00g00

The command you need is this one :

--user-data-dir=c:\path\to\custom\directory

You can read more about it here

nei1

nei1

Thank you g00g00. I'll check it out.

leocg

leocg Moderator Volunteer

Do you promise that won't erase my user data?

I can't promise as it happens or not may depend on you.

Just don't check the option to delete personal data and also don't mark the profile folder to be removed by Revo.

Anyway, a backup is never a bad thing.

nei1

nei1

Amigos.

Still XP. Thanks for tolerating.

I cleaned up my mess.

Old business:

Last week, I started making trouble by changing the account name in Control Panel > User Names. It was annoying to see the account's top folder in Documents and Settings didn't change.

I had to go into Safe Mode to force Windows to allow me to change the top folder name. (I shouldn't have done that.)

When I was done forcing my will, the top folder for the account with all the old data had a new name.

But somehow, Windows created an additional top-folder in Documents and Settings with the old, original account name. It was empty, except for some new-account default files, mostly for Windows Media Player and Bill Gates advertisements.

I thought that Opera was crazy, getting its user data from the empty account, just because it had the original account name. It was keeping me from accessing my million bookmarks.

New Business:

But then I did a right-click on the Windows button, selected Explore, and found that Windows was also going into the empty account folders by default. Instead of looking at the desired folders with all the good, old data, Windows was looking at the empty folders, apparently because their top-folder had the old account name. Windows was refusing to change its default of going to that old account name, even if it had to create a new account-folder with that name. Sorry about the red herring I gave leocg, when I said Windows was back to normal.

And I guess that's why Opera was looking at the empty folders, too.

This is how I cleaned it up. I went back into Safe Mode. I deleted the mostly-empty account. And the 30 GB top-folder with all my data that I had earlier renamed, I renamed it back to the old name -- the one that Windows keeps looking for by default. That pretty much put everything back the way it was originally.

That worked. Windows and Opera are looking at the correct folders for the good, old data. I have my bookmarks, etc., back. I also have my old desktop back.

I need an aspirin and a defrag.

Meanwhile, in Control Panel > User Accounts, the account name is still "changed." So, that's all that changing the account name there is good for -- what's displayed in that User Accounts window, and maybe for logging in and out, which I never do. But it doesn't change the name of the top folder for the account in Windows Explorer > Documents and Settings.

Regarding g00g00's link for re-directing where Opera looks for "user-data," it didn't work for me. They give examples of paths for Chrome and Chromium, but apparently Opera uses different folder names so I wasn't able to apply their instructions, either directly or by inference comparing to the folders I was seeing in This Old Computer. For instance, the path includes a sub-folder named "User Data" which I couldn't find in any Opera folder or subfolder. But the author of the article uses shorthand for folder names, which eliminates preciseness, so maybe the folder "User Data" is actually named something else. If so, don't ask me what. I couldn't find anything close.

I started googling for "Opera User Data" for paths special for Opera, but that's when it dawned on me how to undo my mess.

If the instructions had worked, I might not have struggled to put the computer back the way it was originally. I think this is best.

I don't use the Account functions very often. If I feel the need to change something next time, I'll google for instructions instead of making up my own.

Your suggestions got me working in the right direction, so thank you both.

-neil-