ghost shortcuts in Windows 7

[Al Smith]

Just as a matter of curiosity, I've noticed that in Windows 7, I
sometimes get ghost shortcuts on my desktop -- these are
semi-transparent generic icons outlined with a dotted line, and
without a specific program name. I've been simply deleting them.
Anyone know what causes this?

-Al-

 

[Gordon]

Just as a matter of curiosity, I've noticed that in Windows 7, I sometimes
get ghost shortcuts on my desktop -- these are semi-transparent generic
icons outlined with a dotted line, and without a specific program name.
I've been simply deleting them. Anyone know what causes this?

-Al-

Setting your Folder View to show hidden files.

 

[Al Smith]

Setting your Folder View to show hidden files.

Sure, that's the way I've set hidden files, but what are these
phantom shortcuts?

-Al-

 

[Pulse]

Name one.

Sure, that's the way I've set hidden files, but what are these phantom
shortcuts?

-Al-

 

[Al Smith]

Name one.

I deleted them all. The are *.ini files, and they don't have
regular names. I'm thinking maybe they are caused by Dell Dock,
but I don't know.

-Al-

 

[Ophelia]

I deleted them all. The are *.ini files, and they don't have regular
names. I'm thinking maybe they are caused by Dell Dock, but I don't know.

Ahhh I had some of those .ini file shortcuts. I didn't know what they were
either, but since they were shortcuts I just deleted them.

 

[Pulse]

'Could be. There's a bit of behind the scenes stuff that goes on and you see
it when you unhide hidden files. Usually there's a desktop.ini file (or two)
on the desktop, for example. Run a full virus scan with an up-to-date
scanner if you are concerned.

 

[Al Smith]

'Could be. There's a bit of behind the scenes stuff that goes on and you
see it when you unhide hidden files. Usually there's a desktop.ini file
(or two) on the desktop, for example. Run a full virus scan with an
up-to-date scanner if you are concerned.

I'm not really concerned, just curious.

-Al-

 

[Seth]

Just as a matter of curiosity, I've noticed that in Windows 7, I sometimes
get ghost shortcuts on my desktop -- these are semi-transparent generic
icons outlined with a dotted line, and without a specific program name.
I've been simply deleting them. Anyone know what causes this?

You mean a pair of files called "Desktop.ini"? One from your profile and 1
from the "Public" profile. That's the settings file of how the desktop is
setup. Here's an example of it's contents...


[.ShellClassInfo]
LocalizedResourceName=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-21769
IconResource=%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-183

 

[Al Smith]

Just as a matter of curiosity, I've noticed that in Windows 7, I
sometimes get ghost shortcuts on my desktop -- these are
semi-transparent generic icons outlined with a dotted line, and
without a specific program name. I've been simply deleting them.
Anyone know what causes this?

You mean a pair of files called "Desktop.ini"? One from your profile and
1 from the "Public" profile. That's the settings file of how the desktop
is setup. Here's an example of it's contents...


[.ShellClassInfo]
LocalizedResourceName=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-21769
IconResource=%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-183

Maybe. Deleting them didn't seem to change my desktop, though.

-Al-

 

[Gordon]

Maybe. Deleting them didn't seem to change my desktop, though.

It wouldn't. Windows just re-creates them...

 

[Just D]

"Gordon"

It wouldn't. Windows just re-creates them...

These are just temp files. Many MS apps create temp files in the same folder
where the working document was opened. One very bright example - MS Word.
This fact was published a long time ago when people started losing their
documents deiting them on the floppy drives. The temp file doubles+ the size
occupied by this file and as a result the floppy space is not enough to save
the final document. Same for the Desktop. Try to open some WinWord file
placed on your desktop with Hidden/On, you will see all these temp files,
actually more than one per opened file, depending on how often you save the
changes.

Just D.