Windows 11 – C: system folders appearing in D:

I might be giving up Windows 11 beta for bit. I just got my taskbar and system tray back after this weeks fiasco. Now that a Win 11 Iso is available, I decided to backup some stuff to a portable USB drive just as extra precaution with my Dropbox so I could do a scratch install.

I keep my Dropbox base folders on my D: drive, so I selected all the folders there and copied them to the portable drive. Then I started getting odd popups to confirm moving files that were obviously not personal files.

That’s when I noticed Program Files, Program Files (x86), Users, and Windows seemed to be appearing duplicated in my d: drive. These seem to be links back to the real files in C: and not a second copy. I tried to move and rename a few and it wouldn’t allow it just like the C: version.

I am on the dev channel but 30 days from release this is a pretty serious ‘undocumented feature’. Since I’m planning to do a scratch install anyway, I’m probably going to grab my 21H1 stick for now.