[Gemius]

I'm not sure how I did it but I've made a mess of my Desktop. I tried to rearrange files and got into a situation where I lost all my Icons and couldn't get them back. Somehow while trying to correct the situation I created long file paths which I then couldn't change or delete. The more I try to get rid of them the more they reappear. Vista won't let me edit them all in the Properties dialog window.
Is there any way I can get back to square one and start again. Preferably without deleting all the files and trying to reinstal them.

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try right clicking on the desktop, go to view> tick show desktop icons??????????

[vista]

try right clicking on the desktop, go to view> tick show desktop icons??????????

[Gemius]

No it's not that vista. I've mixed up the file paths somehow. I now have files with paths such as C:\Users\Jim\Jim\Documents\Documents\Desktop\Desktop etc,etc,etc. I can delete some of these but eventually I get a dialog box asking me to Confirm the action. Then it asks if I want to continue, then it says 'You need permission to perform this action' The options are 'Try again and Cancel' which effectively makes it a dead end as Try again never results in anything. Somehow I need to be able to delete all these long file paths and start again but I can't alter them in the Properties dialog box.
The Desktop is a disaster area. I can put the icons on the desktop but then Desktop files are created within my other files (I've never noticed that before) If I delete these files it clears the Desktop. Again I think that somehow I've altered the paths they're following and I need to be able to get back to a simple path.

Does anyone know if System Restore would take me back to before I messed it up? I suspect it would leave my files as they are now.

[Jacee]

Try System Restore. You're no worse off than you are right now...

[Gemius]

I thnk I've solved it now. In the properties dialog box there is a tab 'Location' which has a facility to restore default settings and by using it on all the files which have that Tab I've returned the Desktop to normal.

[Jacee]

Good for you, and thanks for letting us know how you solved it