Desktop Anomaly

[Guest gecko]

On my desktop, in the top left of center a little, I have two items

that look to be grey'ed-out icons. The labels underneath the icons

are 'Reply' and 'Ctrl+R. Double clicking on them does nothing.

Right clicking on them produces the same window that I get when I

right click an unused area of the desktop. So I guess they are not

icons. It's almost as if they are burned into the screen, but I sure

hope not. If I open a full-screen window which covers that area of

the screen, they show through that window.

 

Am I in deep S?

-GECKO

[Guest Brian A.]

Re: Desktop Anomaly

 

"gecko" <alpha@olympus.net> wrote in message news:vr2s74pj6h016f8bglo5v3bm33f7jgusvk@4ax.com...

> On my desktop, in the top left of center a little, I have two items

> that look to be grey'ed-out icons. The labels underneath the icons

> are 'Reply' and 'Ctrl+R. Double clicking on them does nothing.

> Right clicking on them produces the same window that I get when I

> right click an unused area of the desktop. So I guess they are not

> icons. It's almost as if they are burned into the screen, but I sure

> hope not. If I open a full-screen window which covers that area of

> the screen, they show through that window.

>

> Am I in deep S?

> -GECKO

 

They may be hidden files.

Open MyComputer or Explorer.

On the Menu bar click Tools > Folder Options.

Click the View tab.

Select:

"Display the contents of system folders".

"Show hidden files and folders".

 

Deselect:

"Hide extensions for known file types".

"Hide protected operating system files".

 

Apply > Ok out.

Try to delete the files.

If all goes well, go back and undo the changes you made in Tools > Folder Options.

 

If no joy:

Right click on the desktop.

Click Properties in the popup menu.

Click the "Desktop" tab > "Customize desktop" button > "Clean desktop now" button.

When completed close out back to the desktop.

 

If still no joy:

Try booting to Safe Mode to see if they will delete if they're present.

 

If still a no go:

Open a cmd prompt and set the path to:

c:\documents and settings\your username folder\desktop

 

If it is at c:\documents and settings\your username folder, type the below at the prompt and press Enter.

cd ^ desktop **Note: the ^ signifies a single space, do not type in the ^.

dir

 

If the icons are listed type in and press Enter:

del ^ icon.ext **Note: change icon.ext to the actual name and extension of the icon.

 

If they won't delete, try removing the attributes if set. Type and press Enter:

attrib ^ -r ^ -h ^ -s ^ icon.exe

 

After removing any attributes, try to delete them as stated above.

 

--

 

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Windows Desktop User Experience }

Conflicts start where information lacks.

http://basconotw.mvps.org/

 

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://dts-l.com/goodpost.htm

How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

[Guest M.I.5¾]

Re: Desktop Anomaly

 

 

"gecko" <alpha@olympus.net> wrote in message

news:vr2s74pj6h016f8bglo5v3bm33f7jgusvk@4ax.com...

> On my desktop, in the top left of center a little, I have two items

> that look to be grey'ed-out icons. The labels underneath the icons

> are 'Reply' and 'Ctrl+R. Double clicking on them does nothing.

> Right clicking on them produces the same window that I get when I

> right click an unused area of the desktop. So I guess they are not

> icons. It's almost as if they are burned into the screen, but I sure

> hope not. If I open a full-screen window which covers that area of

> the screen, they show through that window.

>

 

It is possible that a comedian has been at work. It was a popular activity

when Windows first appeared, to copy someone's desktop to a bitmap file and

then mount it as their wallpaper. You could click on the 'icons' all day

and nothing would happen, because they weren't actually icons.