[Shari]

I have several shortcuts on my desktop that cannot be deleted. It seems like they have shown up after I've done an uninstall of the program through add/remove programs. I have spent some time with Michelle over at the Malware forum, and we have exhausted our ideas. It appears that my system is not infected and that these are legit icons. All the programs that these icons point to are no longer in use, except the last one that has been reinstalled. I tried to redirect the shortcut to the newly installed folder but get the same error message. The are the following icons:

Visit Broderbund
Creative Lettering Image Browser
hp officejet d series
Free Credit Report and Score
Quicken 2006 Deluxe (most recent - just uninstalled and reinstalled this program).

The error message I get is "cannot delete (shortcut name): Access is denied. Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not in currently use."

Thanks for your help.

Shari

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Here is a link to her topic in the malware forum so you can see what we tried:

http://www.geekstogo...showtopic=96889

She originally had the Dr Watson Postmortem Debugger error but we were able to resolve that issue with a new profile - I was hoping the new profile would also remedy the undeletable shortcuts, but that problem moved right along with the new profile.

[Michelle]

Here is a link to her topic in the malware forum so you can see what we tried:

http://www.geekstogo...showtopic=96889

She originally had the Dr Watson Postmortem Debugger error but we were able to resolve that issue with a new profile - I was hoping the new profile would also remedy the undeletable shortcuts, but that problem moved right along with the new profile.

[Retired Tech]

Do you have a custom screensaver

[Shari]

Wow, that was fast... I use My Slideshow for my screensaver, so I suppose that is custom, right?

Shari

[Retired Tech]

Try setting it to a standard windows one then remove the icons then reset it to what you want

[Shari]

Just tried that. Then rebooted and tried it. Still getting the message... I tried the Kill Box and Unlocker assistant on them again and still get the errors....

[Retired Tech]

Move on Boot is an option, drag the icons into the box, click next

If you still see them on the desktop when you reboot they should go, keep the windows screensaver while you do this

http://www.snapfiles...moveonboot.html

[Shari]

I can drag the icons there. When I press start I get "Option failed: Access denied."

[memberix]

Can you rename the shorcuts. if you can then try to delete them after you renamed them

[Retired Tech]

Does safe mode make a difference

[Retired Tech]

Can you check for a registry key for the icon in the following string:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace

There should be several subkeys under Desktop. If you click on them the name of the icon should appear under "Data" in the right pane. If it's there, delete the subkey.

[Michelle]

I already had her get an export of the whole desktop key in the malware topic, nothing unusual and we tried Safe Mode to no avail.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\{00020D75-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}]
"Removal Message"="Are you sure you want to remove the Outlook icon from your desktop? After you remove this icon from your desktop you can still access the files in this folder: C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Office\\Office\\"
@=""

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\{1f4de370-d627-11d1-ba4f-00a0c91eedba}]
@="Computer Search Results Folder"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\{450D8FBA-AD25-11D0-98A8-0800361B1103}]
@=""
"Removal Message"="@mydocs.dll,-900"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}]
@="Recycle Bin"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\{e17d4fc0-5564-11d1-83f2-00a0c90dc849}]
@="Search Results Folder"

[Shari]

Nope ~ nothing there...

[Shari]

Also, safemode does not make a difference...

[peterm]

Try this little Beauty
Delete Icon