All Users C:\Users\All Users

C:\Users\All Users: compatibility junction to C:\ProgramData, inherited from Windows XP, with no content of its own. "Access denied" is normal.

Updated on 12 November 2026 By AltF4 Formation

What it’s for

On Windows XP, “All Users” was the profile shared by every user (common Start menu, shared application data). Since Windows Vista that data lives in C:\ProgramData. Windows keeps All Users for compatibility: it is a junction that redirects to C:\ProgramData, so applications that still use the old path keep working.

What it contains

No files of its own: the junction points to C:\ProgramData.
The junction is hidden and flagged as a system folder. Listing it is denied, even to an administrator, so the “Access denied” message is normal.
The %ALLUSERSPROFILE% variable points to C:\ProgramData, not to this folder.

Risks and best practices

Older installers and applications still rely on it. Deleting it or changing its permissions breaks them.
Exclude it from backups and recursive copies: following it would duplicate the whole ProgramData content.
In your scripts, write %ProgramData% instead of this legacy path.

Useful commands

# Identify the junction and its target (read-only)
Get-Item 'C:\Users\All Users' -Force | Select-Object FullName, Attributes, LinkType, Target

:: List the junctions in the Users folder
dir C:\Users /AL

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