You cannot use a Web browser to access a document library after you delete the document library Forms folder in Windows SharePoint Services 2.0

After you delete the Forms folder from the document library, users cannot access the document library by using a Web browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer. The only method that users can use to access the document library is to use Web folders.

This problem occurs after you follow these steps:

1. You connect to a document library in your Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 Web site.
2. You view the document library in Explorer view.
3. You delete the Forms folder that is contained in the document library.

This behavior occurs because the Forms folder contains the .aspx pages that are used to display the Web pages of the document library in your Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 Web site. The contents of the Forms folder are used to manage the Web interface of the document library. Typically, you should not delete the Forms folder.

This problem is corrected in Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 Service Pack 2.

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows SharePoint Services 2.0. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: To recover the document library if you deleted the contents of the Forms folder, follow these steps:

1. Connect to the document library by using Web folders.
2. Back up the content that you want in the document library.
3. Delete the document library, and then re-create a new document library.
4. Copy the content that you backed up to the new document library.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section. This problem was first corrected in Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 Service Pack 2.

When you view a document library in Explorer view, the Forms folder is displayed in the view. The Forms folder contains the Web interface of the document library. Users who are members of the Web Designer site group or the Administrator site group have the appropriate permissions to delete the contents of folders in Windows SharePoint Services. If you are a member of the Web Designer site group or the Administrator site group, you experience the following behaviors if you delete the Forms folder of a document library:

• If you use the Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) protocol, the Forms folder and its contents are deleted.
• If you use the Web Extender Client (WEC) protocol, the Forms folder appears to be deleted. When you refresh the Web page, the Forms folder is displayed in the view. The Forms folder is not actually deleted. However, the contents of the Forms folder are deleted.

The contents of the Forms folder are used to manage the Web interface of the document library. Typically, you should not delete the Forms folder.

For more information about document libraries, see the "Working with Lists and Libraries" topic of the Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 Help.

To locate the "Working with Lists and Libraries" topic in the "Working with Windows SharePoint Services" section of Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Help, do the following:

1. Click Help from any SharePoint site page.
2. Click Home.
3. Click Working with Lists and Libraries.

For additional information about how to configure and administer Windows SharePoint Services, see the Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 Administrator's Guide. To obtain this guide, visit the following Microsoft Web site: