Mystery disabled icon on desktop - how remove it?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bill
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Bill

Using XP Home SP3. An icon has appeared on the desktop of my wife's
laptop. The icon is grayed out as though it is disabled. It does not
have a caption. If I right click the icon I get a context menu with
three choices:

Cut
Create Shortcut
Delete

Choosing cut does nothing. Choosing Create Shortcut produces an error
dialog with the message, "Windows could not create the shortcut. Check
to see if the disk is full."

Choosing Delete displays a confirmation dialog with the message, "Are
you sure you want to delete these icons from your desktop? To restore
later, go to control panel."

The only icon I want to delete is the unlabled grayed out icon. I do
not want to delete any others, therefore, I am afraid to try the Delete
choice on the menu since I do not know what will be deleted or how to
restore it via Control Panel.

Can anyone tell me what this mysterious icon is and how to get rid of
it?

By the way, I have checked in Documents and Settings\<username>\Desktop
and in Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop and the mystery icon
does not appear in either folder.
 
Bill said:
Using XP Home SP3. An icon has appeared on the desktop of my wife's
laptop. The icon is grayed out as though it is disabled. It does not
have a caption. If I right click the icon I get a context menu with
three choices:

Cut
Create Shortcut
Delete

Choosing cut does nothing. Choosing Create Shortcut produces an error
dialog with the message, "Windows could not create the shortcut. Check
to see if the disk is full."

Choosing Delete displays a confirmation dialog with the message, "Are
you sure you want to delete these icons from your desktop? To restore
later, go to control panel."

The only icon I want to delete is the unlabled grayed out icon. I do
not want to delete any others, therefore, I am afraid to try the Delete
choice on the menu since I do not know what will be deleted or how to
restore it via Control Panel.

Can anyone tell me what this mysterious icon is and how to get rid of
it?

By the way, I have checked in Documents and Settings\<username>\Desktop
and in Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop and the mystery icon
does not appear in either folder.
Click to expand...

When you looked in the two ...\Desktop folders did you have "Show hidden
files and folders" enabled and "Hide protected operating system files"
disabled? (Windows Explorer > Tools > Folder Options > View)
 
Using XP Home SP3. An icon has appeared on the desktop of
my wife's laptop. The icon is grayed out as though it is
disabled.
Click to expand...

This sounds like one of those problems I sometimes get of which
NO ONE IN THE WORLD has ever heard about.

When you right-click, do you not get the icon's
properties/shortcut? - that info would be a good clue.

I would image the partition and delete the mystery ghost icon.
If all hell breaks loose, restore the partition. It will take
less time than it sounds. And gives you a chance to clean
up/defrag the partition while you're at it, if you feel like it.
 
It may be a NameSpace item.
If so remove it from the Registry using Regedit.
It should appear under the key: (along with the Recycle Bin etc.)

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

It is good practice to export any key before deletion in case of
error.

Report back if in any doubt with the full CLSID of the item, e.g.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
(don't remove that one)


....Alan
 
You have a hidden file on your Desktop folder and its showing on your
Desktop, it is greyed becuase it is a hidden file and your Foklder Options is
configured to show hidden files. I f you don't want it showing disable the
Show hidden files and folders in folder Options.
 
Using XP Home SP3. An icon has appeared on the desktop of my wife's
laptop. The icon is grayed out as though it is disabled. It does not
have a caption. If I right click the icon I get a context menu with
three choices:

Cut
Create Shortcut
Delete

Choosing cut does nothing. Choosing Create Shortcut produces an error
dialog with the message, "Windows could not create the shortcut. Check
to see if the disk is full."

Choosing Delete displays a confirmation dialog with the message, "Are
you sure you want to delete these icons from your desktop? To restore
later, go to control panel."

The only icon I want to delete is the unlabled grayed out icon. I do
not want to delete any others, therefore, I am afraid to try the Delete
choice on the menu since I do not know what will be deleted or how to
restore it via Control Panel.

Can anyone tell me what this mysterious icon is and how to get rid of
it?

By the way, I have checked in Documents and Settings\<username>\Desktop
and in Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop and the mystery icon
does not appear in either folder.
Click to expand...

If XP is asking you that question, it thinks it is a "special" icon -
like My Documents, My Computer, My Network Places, etc.

If it says "these icons" and mentions "Control Panel", then it means
XP thinks you want to delete more than one of these special icons.
You will get the same message if you click more than one My... desktop
icon and choose to delete it/them.

Right click your Desktop, Properties, Desktop tab, Customize Desktop
(or via Control Panel) check the settings there and make any
adjustments. XP is thinking you want to delete those desktop icons.
You can always put them back after removing the annoying mystery
icon..

XP sounds confused. Is there any kind of My... icons missing from
your desktop? You can put them back later if you accidentally delete
them.

Can you drag it to the recycle bin?

I think I would just delete it in spite of the warning and and if
something is missing, just add it back through the desktop Properties.
 
Rey said:
You have a hidden file on your Desktop folder and its showing on your
Desktop, it is greyed becuase it is a hidden file and your Foklder
Options is configured to show hidden files. I f you don't want it
showing disable the Show hidden files and folders in folder Options.
Click to expand...

I turned off hidden files in folder options and the mystery icon is
still on the desktop. Your suggestion makes sense at first glance but
there are several things that do not seem to fit.

1) With hidden files enabled I cannot find the file associated with
this icon (if there is a file associated with the icon) in the Desktop
folder for the single user account, All Users or the default user.

2) When I right click the icon it does not have Properties on its
context menu. The only choices are Cut, Create Shortcut and Delete.

3) The icon has no caption.

Thanks for your suggestion. Any other ideas?
 
Thanks Alan. I have found a key named
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\De
sktop\NameSpace\{450D8FBA-AD25-11D0-98A8-0800361B1103}. It's default
value is blank which would explain why the icon has no caption. It also
has a value named Removal Message whos value is @mydocs.dll,-900.

Is it safe to delete this?
 
thanatoid said:
I would image the partition and delete the mystery ghost icon.
If all hell breaks loose, restore the partition. It will take
less time than it sounds. And gives you a chance to clean
up/defrag the partition while you're at it, if you feel like it.
Click to expand...

Great suggestion if I had 1) software to image the hard drive and 2) a
USB drive I could connect to the laptop to hold the image.<g> This is a
home system so throwing money at the problem is not an option.
 
Jose said:
I think I would just delete it in spite of the warning and and if
something is missing, just add it back through the desktop Properties.
Click to expand...

It may come to that but I want to explore Alan Edward's suggestion
first. See my reply to him.
 
Bill said:
Thanks Alan. I have found a key named
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\De
sktop\NameSpace\{450D8FBA-AD25-11D0-98A8-0800361B1103}. It's default
value is blank which would explain why the icon has no caption. It also
has a value named Removal Message whos value is @mydocs.dll,-900.

Is it safe to delete this?
Click to expand...

You should wait for Alan to respond, but I don't think that's your
problem. I have the exact same key and I don't have a mystery icon on my
desktop.

While you're waiting, you can try Tweak UI
(http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/Downloads/powertoys/Xppowertoys.mspx)
Click on "Desktop" in the left pane and see if there is a strange entry
in the list of Desktop Icons shown on the right. You can also try
TweakUI's "Rebuild Icons" tool under "Repair." I doubt either of these
will help, but TweakUI is always useful to have anyway.
 
As Lem indicates, that is not your problem.
I also have that key as a standard key.
Please list all the keys there. Standard seems to be 4 keys.

Please quote previous messages in your replies.
It makes it easier to follow.

....Alan
 
Great suggestion if I had 1) software to image the hard
drive and 2) a USB drive I could connect to the laptop to
hold the image.<g> This is a home system so throwing money
at the problem is not an option.
Click to expand...

There are free imaging tools and you can put the image on
another partition with enough empty space. If you only have ONE
partition, plan ahead when you set up your next computer. Also,
most image programs allow you to burn the image directly to a
CD/DVD or several of them if necessary.
 
Alan said:
As Lem indicates, that is not your problem.
I also have that key as a standard key.
Please list all the keys there. Standard seems to be 4 keys.

Please quote previous messages in your replies.
It makes it easier to follow.

...Alan
Click to expand...

I have five keys as follows:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\De
sktop\NameSpace\{1f4de370-d627-11d1-ba4f-00a0c91eedba}

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\De
sktop\NameSpace\{450D8FBA-AD25-11D0-98A8-0800361B1103}

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\De
sktop\NameSpace\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\De
sktop\NameSpace\{92E5707A-DAC0-46C0-9BF5-A2D46B1CAAB2}

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\De
sktop\NameSpace\{e17d4fc0-5564-11d1-83f2-00a0c90dc849}

The other one that looks suspicious to me is number four whose default
value is MSN Desktop Search Onfolio IShellFolder Class.
 
I have five keys as follows:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\De
sktop\NameSpace\{1f4de370-d627-11d1-ba4f-00a0c91eedba}

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\De
sktop\NameSpace\{450D8FBA-AD25-11D0-98A8-0800361B1103}

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\De
sktop\NameSpace\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\De
sktop\NameSpace\{92E5707A-DAC0-46C0-9BF5-A2D46B1CAAB2}

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\De
sktop\NameSpace\{e17d4fc0-5564-11d1-83f2-00a0c90dc849}

The other one that looks suspicious to me is number four whose default
value is MSN Desktop Search Onfolio IShellFolder Class.
Click to expand...

Your number 4 is one I don't have (I have the other 4).
I can't find anything about it so I suggest you export the key (just
in case) and delete it.
You may have restart to clear it from the desktop.

....Alan
 
Alan said:
Your number 4 is one I don't have (I have the other 4).
I can't find anything about it so I suggest you export the key (just
in case) and delete it.
You may have restart to clear it from the desktop.

...Alan
Click to expand...

That was it. Thanks very much Alan. I would never have found that on my
own.
 
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