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ghost shortcuts in Windows 7

A

Al Smith

Flightless Bird
Just as a matter of curiosity, I've noticed that in Windows 7, I
sometimes get ghost shortcuts on my desktop -- these are
semi-transparent generic icons outlined with a dotted line, and
without a specific program name. I've been simply deleting them.
Anyone know what causes this?

-Al-
 
G

Gordon

Flightless Bird
"Al Smith" <invalid@address.com> wrote in message
news:Ynhbn.62665$Db2.44449@edtnps83...
> Just as a matter of curiosity, I've noticed that in Windows 7, I sometimes
> get ghost shortcuts on my desktop -- these are semi-transparent generic
> icons outlined with a dotted line, and without a specific program name.
> I've been simply deleting them. Anyone know what causes this?
>
> -Al-


Setting your Folder View to show hidden files.
 
A

Al Smith

Flightless Bird
Gordon wrote:
>
> "Al Smith" <invalid@address.com> wrote in message
> news:Ynhbn.62665$Db2.44449@edtnps83...
>> Just as a matter of curiosity, I've noticed that in Windows 7, I
>> sometimes get ghost shortcuts on my desktop -- these are
>> semi-transparent generic icons outlined with a dotted line, and
>> without a specific program name. I've been simply deleting them.
>> Anyone know what causes this?
>>
>> -Al-

>
> Setting your Folder View to show hidden files.



Sure, that's the way I've set hidden files, but what are these
phantom shortcuts?

-Al-
 
P

Pulse

Flightless Bird
Name one.


"Al Smith" <invalid@address.com> wrote in message
news:0xjbn.64780$PH1.1727@edtnps82...
> Gordon wrote:
>>
>> "Al Smith" <invalid@address.com> wrote in message
>> news:Ynhbn.62665$Db2.44449@edtnps83...
>>> Just as a matter of curiosity, I've noticed that in Windows 7, I
>>> sometimes get ghost shortcuts on my desktop -- these are
>>> semi-transparent generic icons outlined with a dotted line, and
>>> without a specific program name. I've been simply deleting them.
>>> Anyone know what causes this?
>>>
>>> -Al-

>>
>> Setting your Folder View to show hidden files.

>
>
> Sure, that's the way I've set hidden files, but what are these phantom
> shortcuts?
>
> -Al-
 
A

Al Smith

Flightless Bird
Pulse wrote:
> Name one.
>
>
> "Al Smith" <invalid@address.com> wrote in message
> news:0xjbn.64780$PH1.1727@edtnps82...
>> Gordon wrote:
>>>
>>> "Al Smith" <invalid@address.com> wrote in message
>>> news:Ynhbn.62665$Db2.44449@edtnps83...
>>>> Just as a matter of curiosity, I've noticed that in Windows 7, I
>>>> sometimes get ghost shortcuts on my desktop -- these are
>>>> semi-transparent generic icons outlined with a dotted line, and
>>>> without a specific program name. I've been simply deleting them.
>>>> Anyone know what causes this?
>>>>
>>>> -Al-
>>>
>>> Setting your Folder View to show hidden files.

>>
>>
>> Sure, that's the way I've set hidden files, but what are these phantom
>> shortcuts?
>>
>> -Al-

>


I deleted them all. The are *.ini files, and they don't have
regular names. I'm thinking maybe they are caused by Dell Dock,
but I don't know.

-Al-
 
P

Pulse

Flightless Bird
'Could be. There's a bit of behind the scenes stuff that goes on and you see
it when you unhide hidden files. Usually there's a desktop.ini file (or two)
on the desktop, for example. Run a full virus scan with an up-to-date
scanner if you are concerned.

"Al Smith" <invalid@address.com> wrote in message
news:CCjbn.64782$PH1.55096@edtnps82...
> Pulse wrote:
>> Name one.
>>
>>
>> "Al Smith" <invalid@address.com> wrote in message
>> news:0xjbn.64780$PH1.1727@edtnps82...
>>> Gordon wrote:
>>>>
>>>> "Al Smith" <invalid@address.com> wrote in message
>>>> news:Ynhbn.62665$Db2.44449@edtnps83...
>>>>> Just as a matter of curiosity, I've noticed that in Windows 7, I
>>>>> sometimes get ghost shortcuts on my desktop -- these are
>>>>> semi-transparent generic icons outlined with a dotted line, and
>>>>> without a specific program name. I've been simply deleting them.
>>>>> Anyone know what causes this?
>>>>>
>>>>> -Al-
>>>>
>>>> Setting your Folder View to show hidden files.
>>>
>>>
>>> Sure, that's the way I've set hidden files, but what are these phantom
>>> shortcuts?
>>>
>>> -Al-

>>

>
> I deleted them all. The are *.ini files, and they don't have regular
> names. I'm thinking maybe they are caused by Dell Dock, but I don't know.
>
> -Al-
 
O

Ophelia

Flightless Bird
"Al Smith" <invalid@address.com> wrote in message
news:CCjbn.64782$PH1.55096@edtnps82...
> I deleted them all. The are *.ini files, and they don't have regular
> names. I'm thinking maybe they are caused by Dell Dock, but I don't know.


Ahhh I had some of those .ini file shortcuts. I didn't know what they were
either, but since they were shortcuts I just deleted them.
--
--
https://www.shop.helpforheroes.org.uk/
 
A

Al Smith

Flightless Bird
Pulse wrote:
> 'Could be. There's a bit of behind the scenes stuff that goes on and you
> see it when you unhide hidden files. Usually there's a desktop.ini file
> (or two) on the desktop, for example. Run a full virus scan with an
> up-to-date scanner if you are concerned.
>




I'm not really concerned, just curious.

-Al-
 
S

Seth

Flightless Bird
"Al Smith" <invalid@address.com> wrote in message
news:Ynhbn.62665$Db2.44449@edtnps83...
> Just as a matter of curiosity, I've noticed that in Windows 7, I sometimes
> get ghost shortcuts on my desktop -- these are semi-transparent generic
> icons outlined with a dotted line, and without a specific program name.
> I've been simply deleting them. Anyone know what causes this?



You mean a pair of files called "Desktop.ini"? One from your profile and 1
from the "Public" profile. That's the settings file of how the desktop is
setup. Here's an example of it's contents...


[.ShellClassInfo]
LocalizedResourceName=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-21769
IconResource=%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-183
 
A

Al Smith

Flightless Bird
Seth wrote:
> "Al Smith" <invalid@address.com> wrote in message
> news:Ynhbn.62665$Db2.44449@edtnps83...
>> Just as a matter of curiosity, I've noticed that in Windows 7, I
>> sometimes get ghost shortcuts on my desktop -- these are
>> semi-transparent generic icons outlined with a dotted line, and
>> without a specific program name. I've been simply deleting them.
>> Anyone know what causes this?

>
>
> You mean a pair of files called "Desktop.ini"? One from your profile and
> 1 from the "Public" profile. That's the settings file of how the desktop
> is setup. Here's an example of it's contents...
>
>
> [.ShellClassInfo]
> LocalizedResourceName=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-21769
> IconResource=%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-183
>



Maybe. Deleting them didn't seem to change my desktop, though.

-Al-
 
G

Gordon

Flightless Bird
"Al Smith" <invalid@address.com> wrote in message
news:Hukbn.64792$PH1.19040@edtnps82...
>
>
> Maybe. Deleting them didn't seem to change my desktop, though.
>


It wouldn't. Windows just re-creates them...
 
J

Just D

Flightless Bird
"Gordon"
>> Maybe. Deleting them didn't seem to change my desktop, though.

> It wouldn't. Windows just re-creates them...


These are just temp files. Many MS apps create temp files in the same folder
where the working document was opened. One very bright example - MS Word.
This fact was published a long time ago when people started losing their
documents deiting them on the floppy drives. The temp file doubles+ the size
occupied by this file and as a result the floppy space is not enough to save
the final document. Same for the Desktop. Try to open some WinWord file
placed on your desktop with Hidden/On, you will see all these temp files,
actually more than one per opened file, depending on how often you save the
changes.

Just D.
 
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