Deleting shortcuts - looks like it deletes taget file?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Oppie
  • Start date Start date
O

Oppie

Vista home Basic

I have a few desktop icons that I wanted to delete. I got warnings showing
the target file location and informing me that it was about to delete that
(or so it seemed). I have the UAC turned off * and am logged in as
administrator.

Is there any trick to deleting shortcuts?

tia - Oppie

*(couldn't deal with driving and having three mother in laws in the back
seat)
 
Oppie said:
Vista home Basic

I have a few desktop icons that I wanted to delete. I got warnings showing
the target file location and informing me that it was about to delete that
(or so it seemed). I have the UAC turned off * and am logged in as
administrator.

Is there any trick to deleting shortcuts?

tia - Oppie

*(couldn't deal with driving and having three mother in laws in the back
seat)
Click to expand...

Are you sure you aren't misreading the dialog box. Mine says that
deleting the shortcut WILL NOT remove the program.

gls858
 
"will not delete program" was what I was looking for and I didn't see it.
That's why I was not certain that even though the icon was definitely a
shortcut, it looked like it wanted to delete the target file.
Oppie
 
My problem is a little different as I uninstalled a program & now can't
delete the desktop shortcut. I tried dragging to waste basket & to delete by
highlighting & by using 'delete' from menu. I get same message each time:
cannot find path. Is there anyway to delete this icon once the program no
longer exists?
 
I found the problem in my machine could be the same fix for you.

The environment is composed of individual user spaces and a shared space.
(I'm doing this now from an XP machine so bear with me) From windows
explorer, My computer, C:\
You should see 'doucuments and settings'. There will be folders for the
individual users, an All Users and Administrator. In my case, the shortcut I
wanted to remove was in the "all users\desktop" folder. I went in and fround
the shortcut and moved (cut and paste) it to my personal user folder
desktop. At that point, the shortcut could be either deleted or otherwise
managed.
Hope that helps point you in the right direction.
Oppie
 
Can't move it to any folder as it doesn't exist according to the computer.
It doesn't show up in the listing as being on the desktop. Guess it will
remain as a reminder to delete before an uninstall. Thanks for the response.
I was wondering what would happen if I tried a reinstall but don't know if I
can even do that as it was a download of a trial game program.
 
Usually when a shortcut is created by an install, it is delted when the
program is uninstalled...
I'm no expert on this by any means but you may need to be an administrator
or power user in order to move the shortcut from the all users to your user
folder.
 
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