desktop.ini on desktop and in Startup folder

[Guest]

All of a sudden, when I boot Vista, Notepad opens and displays the contents
of a desktop.ini file. (There about 38 copies of desktop.ini in Windows and
its subdirectories!) When I close Notepad, there is -- also new -- a
desktop.ini icon on the desktop.

I found a desktop.ini in the Startup folder -- which I assume is causing
Notepad to run. When I started to delete it, I got a warning that
desktop.ini was a system file and deleting it would cause bad things to
happen. So I chickened out.

I do NOT have Vista set to show hidden files and folders. Also, when I
checked the properties of desktop.ini in the Users/Public/Desktop folder, the
"hidden" attribute checkbox is greyed-out, not checked, and I cannot check it.

How can I clean this up?

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Suggestion. Look for the Solutions to Problems icon in the notification
area on your taskbar. Something else may have turned on system file
visibility. Also check in the event viewer (type "eventvwr.msc" in the
Start Search box).

 

[Guest]

I didn't see "Solutions to Problems" on my taskbar -- and don't recall seeing
it.

I ran event viewer, but it had too much information that I didn't
understand. Sorry.

I finally resorted to brute force; I booted XP (my C: drive), and ran attrib
+H against every instance of desktop.ini on my D: drive (where Vista is)
Solved the problem. Thank god for the good ole command line interface.