Is there a way to protect some icons on the desktop?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Don Taylor
  • Start date Start date
D

Don Taylor

I don't mean to lock the machine so it can't be used.
I just mean, is there something like "read only" that
would keep an icon on the desktop from being deleted
or at least ask for confirmation before it was deleted
off the desktop?

I have found a couple of offers for software that says
"after you have messed it up, run this to put it back"
but I'm trying to find a way to keep some of the icons
and shortcuts from being deleted in the first place.

My first guess was to make them read-only.
Wrong. That doesn't do anything to keep them from
being deleted with an accidental click of the mouse
or tap of the delete key, or other ways that I haven't
been able to figure out.

Thank you
 
I don't mean to lock the machine so it can't be used.
I just mean, is there something like "read only" that
would keep an icon on the desktop from being deleted
or at least ask for confirmation before it was deleted
off the desktop?

I have found a couple of offers for software that says
"after you have messed it up, run this to put it back"
but I'm trying to find a way to keep some of the icons
and shortcuts from being deleted in the first place.

My first guess was to make them read-only.
Wrong. That doesn't do anything to keep them from
being deleted with an accidental click of the mouse
or tap of the delete key, or other ways that I haven't
been able to figure out.

Thank you

Not exactly what you're asking for but you could create a folder and drop
duplicates for all of the desktop shortcuts into it. Pull replacements from
this spare stock of shortcuts when/if one of them is accidentally deleted.
 
| I don't mean to lock the machine so it can't be used.
| I just mean, is there something like "read only" that
| would keep an icon on the desktop from being deleted
| or at least ask for confirmation before it was deleted
| off the desktop?
|
| I have found a couple of offers for software that says
| "after you have messed it up, run this to put it back"
| but I'm trying to find a way to keep some of the icons
| and shortcuts from being deleted in the first place.
|
| My first guess was to make them read-only.
| Wrong. That doesn't do anything to keep them from
| being deleted with an accidental click of the mouse
| or tap of the delete key, or other ways that I haven't
| been able to figure out.
|
| Thank you

Don,

To enable "delete confirmation" messages boxes...

On the desktop
right-click Recycle Bin
Properties.
[Y] Display delete confirmation dialog
 
Sharon F said:
Not exactly what you're asking for but you could create a folder and drop
duplicates for all of the desktop shortcuts into it. Pull replacements from
this spare stock of shortcuts when/if one of them is accidentally deleted.

I cannot figure out what is so hard to understand about what I asked.
There just must be something really hard to understand about this.

Maybe an example will explain it. Imagine you have an icon
on the desktop, say to start up Word, you expect that will
stay there and be used every day for the life of the computer
and beyond. You don't want it to be able to be deleted, you
don't want to have given it a single click accidentally and
then happen to hit the delete key and it is just gone.

Now that sentence doesn't say "I want it to be able to be
deleted but I'll go fix it later", it just says "I don't
want the icon to be able to be deleted off the desktop."

Like I already said, I could go create the icon from scratch
or I could restore it. But that isn't what I asked how to do.

Does anyone know how to do this?
Thank you
 
+-J said:
| I just mean, is there something like "read only" that
| would keep an icon on the desktop from being deleted
| or at least ask for confirmation before it was deleted
| off the desktop?
|
| My first guess was to make them read-only.
| Wrong. That doesn't do anything to keep them from
| being deleted with an accidental click of the mouse
| or tap of the delete key, or other ways that I haven't
| been able to figure out.
|
| Thank you

To enable "delete confirmation" messages boxes...
On the desktop
right-click Recycle Bin
Properties.
[Y] Display delete confirmation dialog

That is already checked. Something else is somehow letting icons
get deleted with no confirmation, I think. This has happened several
times in the last couple of days with the Internet Explorer icon
on the desktop without any confirmation message. The first time or
two I couldn't figure it out. The next time I was sure it happened.
(No it isn't a virus, nothing gets past the layers of protection here)
How do you lock down an icon?

Thank you
 
Don,

First off, Sharon was just trying to help out, as we are all.

Secondly, I have seen this type of behavior (IE icon) from users removing
the icon from the Start Menu and/or the Quick Launch Bar. As a matter of
fact, the true underlying cause was due to the Office Toolbar.

Once IE was used all Pinned items on the Start Menu etc, disappeared along
with Desktop icons (IE and Office). Good luck!




Don Taylor said:
+-J said:
| I just mean, is there something like "read only" that
| would keep an icon on the desktop from being deleted
| or at least ask for confirmation before it was deleted
| off the desktop?
|
| My first guess was to make them read-only.
| Wrong. That doesn't do anything to keep them from
| being deleted with an accidental click of the mouse
| or tap of the delete key, or other ways that I haven't
| been able to figure out.
|
| Thank you

To enable "delete confirmation" messages boxes...
On the desktop
right-click Recycle Bin
Properties.
[Y] Display delete confirmation dialog

That is already checked. Something else is somehow letting icons
get deleted with no confirmation, I think. This has happened several
times in the last couple of days with the Internet Explorer icon
on the desktop without any confirmation message. The first time or
two I couldn't figure it out. The next time I was sure it happened.
(No it isn't a virus, nothing gets past the layers of protection here)
How do you lock down an icon?

Thank you
 
Kelly said:
First off, Sharon was just trying to help out, as we are all.
Secondly, I have seen this type of behavior (IE icon) from users removing
the icon from the Start Menu and/or the Quick Launch Bar. As a matter of
fact, the true underlying cause was due to the Office Toolbar.

Definitely didn't manually remove it from the start menu, it might not have
ever even been in the start menu list, but never used from there, isn't in
the quick launch bar. I don't think the office toolbar is even installed.
Once IE was used all Pinned items on the Start Menu etc, disappeared along
with Desktop icons (IE and Office). Good luck!

I've got the classic view of Start turned on (so pinned stuff either doesn't
exist or is out there where I couldn't touch it anyway) but never run
anything from there, other than rarely going into All Programs. Everything
I use sits as as an icon on the desktop or one of a few items in the Quick
launch bar.

It just did it again an hour ago. The IE icon vanished and I never left
the desktop. Some "feature" somewhere is killing this icon. It doesn't
end up in the recycling bin. It has to be another bug somewhere.
MS-MVP Win98/XP
[AE-Windows XP]
Utilities for Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_u.htm#xp_util

Don Taylor said:
+-J said:
| I just mean, is there something like "read only" that
| would keep an icon on the desktop from being deleted
| or at least ask for confirmation before it was deleted
| off the desktop?
|
| My first guess was to make them read-only.
| Wrong. That doesn't do anything to keep them from
| being deleted with an accidental click of the mouse
| or tap of the delete key, or other ways that I haven't
| been able to figure out.
|
| Thank you

To enable "delete confirmation" messages boxes...
On the desktop
right-click Recycle Bin
Properties.
[Y] Display delete confirmation dialog

That is already checked. Something else is somehow letting icons
get deleted with no confirmation, I think. This has happened several
times in the last couple of days with the Internet Explorer icon
on the desktop without any confirmation message. The first time or
two I couldn't figure it out. The next time I was sure it happened.
(No it isn't a virus, nothing gets past the layers of protection here)
How do you lock down an icon?

Thank you
 
Hi Don,

The guy I was helping had the same thing happening and even more, as I
explained. In his case, he could re-create it every time he either opened
Outlook and/or IE.

Keep us posted. BTW, if you are running SP2, take it to the SP2IE beta
groups.




Definitely didn't manually remove it from the start menu, it might not have
ever even been in the start menu list, but never used from there, isn't in
the quick launch bar. I don't think the office toolbar is even installed.
Once IE was used all Pinned items on the Start Menu etc, disappeared along
with Desktop icons (IE and Office). Good luck!

I've got the classic view of Start turned on (so pinned stuff either doesn't
exist or is out there where I couldn't touch it anyway) but never run
anything from there, other than rarely going into All Programs. Everything
I use sits as as an icon on the desktop or one of a few items in the Quick
launch bar.

It just did it again an hour ago. The IE icon vanished and I never left
the desktop. Some "feature" somewhere is killing this icon. It doesn't
end up in the recycling bin. It has to be another bug somewhere.
MS-MVP Win98/XP
[AE-Windows XP]
Utilities for Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_u.htm#xp_util

Don Taylor said:
| I just mean, is there something like "read only" that
| would keep an icon on the desktop from being deleted
| or at least ask for confirmation before it was deleted
| off the desktop?
|
| My first guess was to make them read-only.
| Wrong. That doesn't do anything to keep them from
| being deleted with an accidental click of the mouse
| or tap of the delete key, or other ways that I haven't
| been able to figure out.
|
| Thank you

Don,

To enable "delete confirmation" messages boxes...

On the desktop
right-click Recycle Bin
Properties.
[Y] Display delete confirmation dialog

That is already checked. Something else is somehow letting icons
get deleted with no confirmation, I think. This has happened several
times in the last couple of days with the Internet Explorer icon
on the desktop without any confirmation message. The first time or
two I couldn't figure it out. The next time I was sure it happened.
(No it isn't a virus, nothing gets past the layers of protection here)
How do you lock down an icon?

Thank you
 
Kelly said:
The guy I was helping had the same thing happening and even more, as I
explained. In his case, he could re-create it every time he either opened
Outlook and/or IE.
Keep us posted. BTW, if you are running SP2, take it to the SP2IE beta
groups.

I spent two days sitting in Mathematica doing all the calculations
and getting the presentation exactly correct. Asked Mathematica
to export the whole thing as html. That created a folder on the
desktop with index.html, two dozen graphics files and a .css file.
I closed out Mathematica and saved all my work. Drag and drop right
mouse move all those from the folder onto the desktop. Ftp all
these from the desktop to the web server. Open up IE using the
shortcut on the desktop and confirm that the presentation is ready.
Everything seems fine. Close IE. Everything seems fine. Hold
down the control key and one at a time carefully select all those
html and graphics files I had just just ftp'ed. Tap the delete
key... and it blows away the html file, the graphics files, the IE
icon on the desktop AND the folder with all my source files I've
spent two days inside of Mathematica making! No, those last two
were not selected when I tapped that key.

And what did they do with "shift left mouse click"? It used to
work, under Win98, in a way that would let me select just about
the group of files on the desktop that I wanted. XP has changed
this and I can't find any sensible way to use it to select the
group of files I want. It seems to select only a single file
when I hold down the shift key or it selects what looks like an
arbitrary collection of files.

No, I'm not running SP2.

An article in IEEE Computer that said it was estimated that Windows
XP shipped with half a million bugs. An estimated bug per page of
code after all the testing and "trusted computing."
MS-MVP Win98/XP
[AE-Windows XP]
Utilities for Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_u.htm#xp_util

Definitely didn't manually remove it from the start menu, it might not have
ever even been in the start menu list, but never used from there, isn't in
the quick launch bar. I don't think the office toolbar is even installed.
Once IE was used all Pinned items on the Start Menu etc, disappeared along
with Desktop icons (IE and Office). Good luck!

I've got the classic view of Start turned on (so pinned stuff either doesn't
exist or is out there where I couldn't touch it anyway) but never run
anything from there, other than rarely going into All Programs. Everything
I use sits as as an icon on the desktop or one of a few items in the Quick
launch bar.

It just did it again an hour ago. The IE icon vanished and I never left
the desktop. Some "feature" somewhere is killing this icon. It doesn't
end up in the recycling bin. It has to be another bug somewhere.
MS-MVP Win98/XP
[AE-Windows XP]
Utilities for Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_u.htm#xp_util

| I just mean, is there something like "read only" that
| would keep an icon on the desktop from being deleted
| or at least ask for confirmation before it was deleted
| off the desktop?
|
| My first guess was to make them read-only.
| Wrong. That doesn't do anything to keep them from
| being deleted with an accidental click of the mouse
| or tap of the delete key, or other ways that I haven't
| been able to figure out.
|
| Thank you

Don,

To enable "delete confirmation" messages boxes...

On the desktop
right-click Recycle Bin
Properties.
[Y] Display delete confirmation dialog

That is already checked. Something else is somehow letting icons
get deleted with no confirmation, I think. This has happened several
times in the last couple of days with the Internet Explorer icon
on the desktop without any confirmation message. The first time or
two I couldn't figure it out. The next time I was sure it happened.
(No it isn't a virus, nothing gets past the layers of protection here)
How do you lock down an icon?

Thank you
 
| >Hi Don,
|
| >The guy I was helping had the same thing happening and even more, as I
| >explained. In his case, he could re-create it every time he either opened
| >Outlook and/or IE.
|
| >Keep us posted. BTW, if you are running SP2, take it to the SP2IE beta
| >groups.
|
| I spent two days sitting in Mathematica doing all the calculations
| and getting the presentation exactly correct. Asked Mathematica
| to export the whole thing as html. That created a folder on the
| desktop with index.html, two dozen graphics files and a .css file.
| I closed out Mathematica and saved all my work. Drag and drop right
| mouse move all those from the folder onto the desktop. Ftp all
| these from the desktop to the web server. Open up IE using the
| shortcut on the desktop and confirm that the presentation is ready.
| Everything seems fine. Close IE. Everything seems fine. Hold
| down the control key and one at a time carefully select all those
| html and graphics files I had just just ftp'ed. Tap the delete
| key... and it blows away the html file, the graphics files, the IE
| icon on the desktop AND the folder with all my source files I've
| spent two days inside of Mathematica making! No, those last two
| were not selected when I tapped that key.
|
| And what did they do with "shift left mouse click"? It used to
| work, under Win98, in a way that would let me select just about
| the group of files on the desktop that I wanted. XP has changed
| this and I can't find any sensible way to use it to select the
| group of files I want. It seems to select only a single file
| when I hold down the shift key or it selects what looks like an
| arbitrary collection of files.
|
| No, I'm not running SP2.
|
| An article in IEEE Computer that said it was estimated that Windows
| XP shipped with half a million bugs. An estimated bug per page of
| code after all the testing and "trusted computing."
|
| >--
| >All the Best,
| >Kelly
|
| >MS-MVP Win98/XP
| >[AE-Windows XP]
|
| >Troubleshooting Windows XP
| >http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com
|
| >Utilities for Windows XP
| >http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_u.htm#xp_util
|
|
|
| >> Definitely didn't manually remove it from the start menu, it might not
| >have
| >> ever even been in the start menu list, but never used from there, isn't in
| >> the quick launch bar. I don't think the office toolbar is even installed.
| >>
| >> >Once IE was used all Pinned items on the Start Menu etc, disappeared
| >along
| >> >with Desktop icons (IE and Office). Good luck!
| >>
| >> I've got the classic view of Start turned on (so pinned stuff either
| >doesn't
| >> exist or is out there where I couldn't touch it anyway) but never run
| >> anything from there, other than rarely going into All Programs.
| >Everything
| >> I use sits as as an icon on the desktop or one of a few items in the Quick
| >> launch bar.
| >>
| >> It just did it again an hour ago. The IE icon vanished and I never left
| >> the desktop. Some "feature" somewhere is killing this icon. It doesn't
| >> end up in the recycling bin. It has to be another bug somewhere.
| >>
| >> >--
| >> >All the Best,
| >> >Kelly
| >>
| >> >MS-MVP Win98/XP
| >> >[AE-Windows XP]
| >>
| >> >Troubleshooting Windows XP
| >> >http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com
| >>
| >> >Utilities for Windows XP
| >> >http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_u.htm#xp_util
| >>
| >>
| >> >| >> >> >| I just mean, is there something like "read only" that
| >> >> >| would keep an icon on the desktop from being deleted
| >> >> >| or at least ask for confirmation before it was deleted
| >> >> >| off the desktop?
| >> >> >|
| >> >> >| My first guess was to make them read-only.
| >> >> >| Wrong. That doesn't do anything to keep them from
| >> >> >| being deleted with an accidental click of the mouse
| >> >> >| or tap of the delete key, or other ways that I haven't
| >> >> >| been able to figure out.
| >> >> >|
| >> >> >| Thank you
| >> >>
| >> >> >Don,
| >> >>
| >> >> > To enable "delete confirmation" messages boxes...
| >> >>
| >> >> >On the desktop
| >> >> > right-click Recycle Bin
| >> >> > Properties.
| >> >> > [Y] Display delete confirmation dialog
| >> >>
| >> >> That is already checked. Something else is somehow letting icons
| >> >> get deleted with no confirmation, I think. This has happened several
| >> >> times in the last couple of days with the Internet Explorer icon
| >> >> on the desktop without any confirmation message. The first time or
| >> >> two I couldn't figure it out. The next time I was sure it happened.
| >> >> (No it isn't a virus, nothing gets past the layers of protection here)
| >> >> How do you lock down an icon?
| >> >>
| >> >> Thank you

Don,

Could you check this setting in TweakUI (for XP) - navigate to...
[+] Explorer
"Settings"
[_] Manipulate connected files as a unit

If TweakUI is not installed on your system, then download it from
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp

Note: V2.10.0.0 needs Windows XP SP 1

If you do not have SP1, the earlier version of TweakUI can be found at
http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler/Install/2/WXP/EN-US/TweakUiPowertoySetup.exe
 
+-J said:
| >The guy I was helping had the same thing happening and even more, as I
| >explained. In his case, he could re-create it every time he either opened
| >Outlook and/or IE.
|
| >Keep us posted. BTW, if you are running SP2, take it to the SP2IE beta
| >groups.
|
| I spent two days sitting in Mathematica doing all the calculations
| and getting the presentation exactly correct. Asked Mathematica
| to export the whole thing as html. That created a folder on the
| desktop with index.html, two dozen graphics files and a .css file.
| I closed out Mathematica and saved all my work. Drag and drop right
| mouse move all those from the folder onto the desktop. Ftp all
| these from the desktop to the web server. Open up IE using the
| shortcut on the desktop and confirm that the presentation is ready.
| Everything seems fine. Close IE. Everything seems fine. Hold
| down the control key and one at a time carefully select all those
| html and graphics files I had just just ftp'ed. Tap the delete
| key... and it blows away the html file, the graphics files, the IE
| icon on the desktop AND the folder with all my source files I've
| spent two days inside of Mathematica making! No, those last two
| were not selected when I tapped that key.

Could you check this setting in TweakUI (for XP) - navigate to...
[+] Explorer
"Settings"
[_] Manipulate connected files as a unit

I'm gullible but can you explain to me how or why this is likely
going to do something to fix this problem? If there is some real
reason to believe that this will fix the problem then I'm all for it.
But if this is just changing something then I'm more than a little
reluctant to make changes without good reason.

And if anyone can suggest how I can best go about reporting this,
that appears to be a bug, and have some microscopic chance that
it might get worked on and fixed some day I'd even do that. Or if
there is anything in the bug list already that describes something
like this I'd like to know how to find it. Thus far I've had zero
success finding anything that sounds like this.

Thank you
 
| >| >The guy I was helping had the same thing happening and even more, as I
| >| >explained. In his case, he could re-create it every time he either opened
| >| >Outlook and/or IE.
| >|
| >| I spent two days sitting in Mathematica doing all the calculations
| >| and getting the presentation exactly correct. Asked Mathematica
| >| to export the whole thing as html. That created a folder on the
| >| desktop with index.html, two dozen graphics files and a .css file.
| >| I closed out Mathematica and saved all my work. Drag and drop right
| >| mouse move all those from the folder onto the desktop. Ftp all
| >| these from the desktop to the web server. Open up IE using the
| >| shortcut on the desktop and confirm that the presentation is ready.
| >| Everything seems fine. Close IE. Everything seems fine. Hold
| >| down the control key and one at a time carefully select all those
| >| html and graphics files I had just just ftp'ed. Tap the delete
| >| key... and it blows away the html file, the graphics files, the IE
| >| icon on the desktop AND the folder with all my source files I've
| >| spent two days inside of Mathematica making! No, those last two
| >| were not selected when I tapped that key.
|
| >Don,
|
| > Could you check this setting in TweakUI (for XP) - navigate to...
| >[+] Explorer
| > "Settings"
| > [_] Manipulate connected files as a unit
|
| I'm gullible but can you explain to me how or why this is likely
| going to do something to fix this problem? If there is some real
| reason to believe that this will fix the problem then I'm all for it.
| But if this is just changing something then I'm more than a little
| reluctant to make changes without good reason.

I did *not* ask you change anything. I asked you to check a setting, the name of which sounds relevant to your issue. If that
simple task is too much trouble for you, then you might instead ask the developers of "Mathematica" for assistance.


| And if anyone can suggest how I can best go about reporting this,
| that appears to be a bug, and have some microscopic chance that
| it might get worked on and fixed some day I'd even do that. Or if
| there is anything in the bug list already that describes something
| like this I'd like to know how to find it. Thus far I've had zero
| success finding anything that sounds like this.
|
| Thank you
 
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