User can not delete from desktop nor rename

[Zak]

XP Pro/SP1. I sign on via an administrator account. I have no
problems.

My son signs on via a user account and he has problems.

---

He can not delete Word documents which he himself has just created
and saved to his desktop. When he presses DELETE or uses Delete
in the context menu, the eggtimer appears briefly and then ...
nothing.

Nor can he rename these Word files.

---

With other types of file (.XLS or .TXT or .ZIP) on the desktop he
can rename them but not delete them.

His desktop document's properties has only have two or three tabs.

---

He can copy and paste files on his desktop but he can not do this
in his user's data folder.

Is there a something which needs resetting on the system?

Thank you.
Zak

------------------------

BTW - I recently had to reinstall Office 2000 because Excel was
messed up. I had to use the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility
because Add/Remove had a glitch with MS Office. I can't say if
this is related as my uses his account only occassionally..

 

[Norm Dresner]

What else is running when he signs on that isn't running when you do?
There are programs that will prevent changes to the desktop, especially
programs that are designed to keep icons in the same place if you change
resolutions, etc.

Norm

 

[garfield-n-odie]

See http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421 "How to take
ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP".

 

[Alex Coleman]

What else is running when he signs on that isn't running when
you do? There are programs that will prevent changes to the
desktop, especially programs that are designed to keep icons in
the same place if you change resolutions, etc.

Norm

I can't work wout what else might be causing this. There is no
process running which I can see is the culprit.

Maybe I installed something and it changed the settings and then I
uninstalled it.

Do any of you specialists know where I might look and what settings
might be affected?

 

[Norm Dresner]

I can't work wout what else might be causing this. There is no
process running which I can see is the culprit.

Maybe I installed something and it changed the settings and then I
uninstalled it.

Do any of you specialists know where I might look and what settings
might be affected?

Well, I use a program called FrozenIcons on several machines which manages
the location of icons on my desktop and restores them when I change
resolutions. Previous versions had the unfortunate "feature" of not
allowing me to rename any icons on the desktop directly -- in effect
behaving exactly as you described. It's been corrected in the current
version.
I'm not suggesting that you're running this, but from what I could tell, the
program operated by "hooking" globally the stream of messages that the
Windows kernel distributes to running programs and squashing the ones it
wanted to block. Assuming that this is correct, a debugging tool like
Spy++, but I suspect that if you know how to use it you would have already
done so.
I think the first thing I'd do to find what's going on is to examine the
contents of the Startup folder for your son's account and see what it
contains that your Administrator account doesn't have. Then I'd use the
Process list in the Task Manager to see what's running for each user. If
you maximize its window, you usually can see the entire list and just use
Print Screen to get hard copies.

Norm