Hi, Robert.

I waited a couple of days, hoping some guru would jump in, but... :>(

If you open that folder, c:\users\{my name}\Desktop, do you see those icon
files? Can you delete them there? If not, what error message do you see?



Can you delete them in an Administrator:Command Prompt window? Right-click
on Cmd.exe and choose Run as Administrator; you'll have to furnish
Administrator credentials but from there on, any command or program launched
from this window will "run elevated" with Administrator privileges. I hope
you are familiar with the old MS-DOS commands because they work almost the
same way here as they always did. If not, let me know and I'll try to
explain further.

In this window, cd c:\users\{my name}\Desktop and enter Dir. Do you see
those icons listed? What exactly does Dir say about them? Can you delete
them by simply using the Del command? If not, what error message do you
see? Try Attrib *.* and see if they have any Attributes that we haven't
thought about.

And the question that probably should have been asked at the beginning of
this thread: What kind of icons? Are these for program files, data files,
drives or USB devices? Or something else?

I've Googled for "delete icons from desktop" and get 155 hits; adding +vista
narrows it down to 34; I've looked at a few but none seem to really relate
to your problem.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@xxxxxx
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1)

"SpiderRIDER" <nospam@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news42253CB-3342-48C1-823C-BBDBA3555DFD@xxxxxx

> It points to the desktop c:\users\{my name}\Desktop
>
> There is no properties tab. The size and size on disk is 0 bytes.
>
> I do have security, details and previous versions tabs. Ready only isn't
> checked and neither is hidden.
>
> Robert

Yes, I see the two files listed every which way I look for them. Windows
Explorer, command prompt, etc.
They always have a size of 0.
I can't delete them from Windows Explorer
I can't delete them from the command prompt with admin privileges on.
They are data files

I am simply told that the file could not be found. I have tried creating new
files with the exact same name and new files are created but they do not
overwrite the existing ones. I am beginning to think that A) Vista is every
bit as horrible and OS as I thought it was from day one. B) I am going to
have to format and reinstall to get rid of two 0 bytes files that I deleted
weeks ago but can't seem to get rid of.

Hi, Robert.

Have you run CHKDSK on that drive? Couldn't hurt, could it? At least once
before you format and re-install.

Have you tried booting into Safe Mode and trying to delete them from there?

Too bad we've progressed so far from the simple FAT days when we could have
used DiskEdit from the REAL Norton Utilities to zap the bits in the FAT and
in the directory!

And I'm surprised and disappointed that nobody has come up with an idea yet.
;>(

Good luck! And let us know, either way.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@xxxxxx
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1)

"SpiderRIDER" <nospam@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:3732DE32-D260-483B-A4F8-8DD93838AF3A@xxxxxx

> Yes, I see the two files listed every which way I look for them. Windows
> Explorer, command prompt, etc.
> They always have a size of 0.
> I can't delete them from Windows Explorer
> I can't delete them from the command prompt with admin privileges on.
> They are data files
>
> I am simply told that the file could not be found. I have tried creating
> new files with the exact same name and new files are created but they do
> not overwrite the existing ones. I am beginning to think that A) Vista is
> every bit as horrible and OS as I thought it was from day one. B) I am
> going to have to format and reinstall to get rid of two 0 bytes files that
> I deleted weeks ago but can't seem to get rid of.

I missed the first part of this discussion, but here's my compilation of fixes I've found so far. Some have been mentioned already, others not:

One possible answer is that the Windows Search feature is indexing the file, which prevents you from deleting it. Try disabling the feature via the Services tab of msconfig (type that into the Run window). Restart, and see if you can delete the file.

Another possibility is that the Thumbnail generator built into Windows is accessing the file but can't render a thumbnail. Try disabling thumbnails altogether: in any folder, click Organize, Folder and Search Options, the View tab, and check "always show icons, never thumbnails." Restart (shouldn't need to, but just to be sure) and retry deleting.

If still no luck, you might try programs like Unlock (just google it) that give you improved access to "in use" files. I haven't tried this one, but others had good luck with it.

Here's another option: uninstall the program that contains the codec used to open the file you can't delete. For example, if you can't delete a .mov file, uninstall Quicktime and try deleting again. You can reinstall the program when the unwanted file is gone.

Finally, a strange solution, one that saved me very recently: try to delete the file, and wait for the "recycling" window to appear. While it's up, press CTRL+ALT+DEL to bring up the Task Manager. Disable the task explorer.exe and wait a moment; your desktop will disappear. Reinable explorer.exe (click File, New Task, and type explorer.exe) and your desktop will reappear. Right-click the desktop and choose refresh (just to be sure). Now try to delete the file again. It worked for me!

Good luck!

"Brink" wrote:

>
> Hi SpiderRIDER,
>
> Sometimes these are just ghost icons and can be removed by refreshing
> the desktop (F5) or restarting the computer.
>
> Hope this helps,
> Shawn
>
> SpiderRIDER;804766 Wrote:

> > Ok, I have two blank icons that belonged to two files in my desktop. I
> > deleted these files days ago, but the blank icons with text still show
> > on
> > the desktop. When I try to delete them I get the following message from
> > Windows Vista Ultimate...
> >
> > Could not find this item
> >
> > This is no longer located in the c:\[Directory Structure That Points to
> > my
> > Desktop Here]. Verify the item's location and try again.
> >
> > I then have a try again button and a cancel button.
> >
> > I have tried creating two text files with the exact same filenames and
> > extensions and it doesn't ask me to overwrite, it just creates two new
> > files
> > with the same names and extensions. I can delete these two new files
> > but the
> > other original two remain.
> >
> > Any idea's what happened and how I can get rid of these two things?
> >
> > SpiderRIDER

>
>
> --
> Brink
>
> *There are no dumb questions, just the people that do not ask
> them.*
> '*VISTA FORUMS*' (http://www.vistax64.com)
> *Please post feedback to help others.*
>

I think the biggest problem is that no one really understands what the
problem is because it is too hard to believe that something like this is
possible in 2009 to exist, especially with Vista the most sophisticated
software program of our generation.

Actually the problem is that even though the icon(s) shows on your
desktop, it really does not register to your operating system that it is
there. It is a ghost icon. You can see it but in most cases it is just
the empty shell of a program/application that was deleted or otherwise
not available through that shortcut.

I have had that problem so I understand where you are coming from. I've
tried the regedit HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE tip, DelinvFile 3.03 program,
Unlocker http://********.free.fr/unlocker/ program (Which Vista refuses
to open after installation), Move on Boot program, also the
Disable/restart the
task explorer.exe and all the other ideas talked about which are too
many to list.

I could still not remove the icon because no program could see it and
if they did recognize it was there they would only tell you they could
not perform any task you requested because the folder was empty. Then if
you repopulate the icon, only the contents (original or not) gets
deleted. The icon(s) still remains.

I would like to imagine that someday someone would understand what the
problem actually is and be able to correct it. As of now, there are only
limited success results due to differing situations involved in the
creation of each ghost icon.

I've come to the conclusion that since people really don't understand
how annoying it is or what you are trying to relay to them, they
conclude you are some kind of wacko that understands almost nothing
about operating systems.

The best fix I have come up with is to open a new logon account. This
is a pain but once it is set up the way you want it, delete the user
account that has the ghost icons that are beyond understanding.

End of ghosts and end of problem.

It's just too bad that you have to recreate a new logon account to
correct a problem that should be easy to correct.

I know it gets you angry enough to reformat your drive but opening a
new login account is much less painful.


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Hi....First post ! New to this Forum...... but not to Forum's
generally...

Just wanted to add my comments to this thread to help anyone who comes
along after me.

I had exactly the same problem with one file on my Vista Ultimate 32bit
desktop as *SpiderRider*

The solution was in the post by *bjg123*. *Lelixir* also metioned it
too.

-Unlocker- was the program that worked for me. Got rid of that pesky
file that had (embarassingly) been hanging around for weeks !!

http://********.free.fr/unlocker/

Thanks for the info.......


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Hi all,

I think I have a solution to the problem. It worked for my machine at
least. Hope it works for you too. I had a file on my desktop like you
had, say abc.ext, that I could not delete/rename/modify/etc because
Vista said it did not exist. To fix the problem, I created a new text
file on my desktop and renamed it to the same name, abc.ext . Even
though the name was the same as the un-deletable file on my desktop,
Vista did not complain, and showed two files on the desktop with the
same name. Now, with this new file in place, if you rename the old
un-deletable file to something new like "test", you can delete it!! (If
you just try to remove the old un-deletable file, it causes the *new*
file you just created to be deleted oddly enough, so one is still left
with the un-deletable file). This solution worked for me, and hope it
works for you too! Let me know if it does,

-Henry


--
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henry2304 <henry2304.3omlzb@xxxxxx> wrote:

>This solution worked for me, and hope it
>works for you too! Let me know if it does,

The person you replied to left the room seven months ago.