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One of my users at work (my day job) reported this "new" problem (new for
him, anyway): he creates a shortcut on the Desktop, double-clicks it, and
an error box pops up with "Windows cannot access the specified device, path,
or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item".
I determined that he was creating the shortcuts correctly and created
several more myself, including simply left-dragging items off the Start menu
or from a folder and dropping on the Desktop with "Create Shortcuts here".
The Start menu items were especially interesting in that they worked from
the Start menu but not from the Desktop Shortcut.
I googled this problem, found out that it has been reported many, many,
times, and came up with a few possibilities - edit the registry in
accordance with KB Article 172223 for example, or removing a particular
recent hotfix (sorry, I forget which one...). Anyway, none of these fixes
worked. Indeed, they don't seem to have worked for most of the people who
had previously reported the problem.
I was examining the Properties window for one of the non-working shortcuts
when I noticed something not-quite-right with the "Location" shown on the
General tab. It was pointing to "C:\Documents and
Settings\user_name\Cookies\Desktop". This was obviously wrong - a quick
comparison to another system verified that "C:\Documents and
Settings\user_name\Desktop" would have been the correct entry.
In Windows Explorer, I determined that this user's "Desktop" folder was
indeed inside of the "Cookies" folder. I dragged it out and dropped it back
in it's proper location directly under C:\Documents and Settings\user_name.
And that solved the problem - all old and new shortcuts now function
correctly.
The question is, how did the Desktop folder get moved in the first place?
The user is certain that he didn't do it. There are a few other user
accounts on this system (a Dell notebook, by the way) and those folders are
all arranged in the normal fashion.
I should point out that the other reason he had given me the notebook in the
first place was that he had been "infected" with a CoolWeb hijacker variant.
I wonder if the two problems are related?
By the way, this was a WindowsXPsp1a system with all hotfixes installed. I
suspect however that this solution would apply to all Windows versions from
98 and up.
Hope this info helps!
Carmine Castiglia
http://www.infosystemspro.com
him, anyway): he creates a shortcut on the Desktop, double-clicks it, and
an error box pops up with "Windows cannot access the specified device, path,
or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item".
I determined that he was creating the shortcuts correctly and created
several more myself, including simply left-dragging items off the Start menu
or from a folder and dropping on the Desktop with "Create Shortcuts here".
The Start menu items were especially interesting in that they worked from
the Start menu but not from the Desktop Shortcut.
I googled this problem, found out that it has been reported many, many,
times, and came up with a few possibilities - edit the registry in
accordance with KB Article 172223 for example, or removing a particular
recent hotfix (sorry, I forget which one...). Anyway, none of these fixes
worked. Indeed, they don't seem to have worked for most of the people who
had previously reported the problem.
I was examining the Properties window for one of the non-working shortcuts
when I noticed something not-quite-right with the "Location" shown on the
General tab. It was pointing to "C:\Documents and
Settings\user_name\Cookies\Desktop". This was obviously wrong - a quick
comparison to another system verified that "C:\Documents and
Settings\user_name\Desktop" would have been the correct entry.
In Windows Explorer, I determined that this user's "Desktop" folder was
indeed inside of the "Cookies" folder. I dragged it out and dropped it back
in it's proper location directly under C:\Documents and Settings\user_name.
And that solved the problem - all old and new shortcuts now function
correctly.
The question is, how did the Desktop folder get moved in the first place?
The user is certain that he didn't do it. There are a few other user
accounts on this system (a Dell notebook, by the way) and those folders are
all arranged in the normal fashion.
I should point out that the other reason he had given me the notebook in the
first place was that he had been "infected" with a CoolWeb hijacker variant.
I wonder if the two problems are related?
By the way, this was a WindowsXPsp1a system with all hotfixes installed. I
suspect however that this solution would apply to all Windows versions from
98 and up.
Hope this info helps!
Carmine Castiglia
http://www.infosystemspro.com