Delete unwanted desktop icons? (1 Viewer)

[Henry Gale]

Since I've had Windows 2000 I frequently get gifted with desktop links for POKER, TRAVEL, CARD GAMES, and a couple of others.
I don't like it...they appear invited on my favorites list also.
But I could delete them, if only 'til the next time they conjured up.
Tonight they appeared, and they won't go away! Right clicking fails to produce a banner on these little *#+@!rs.
In fact, I can't even move them around the page.
I made an attempt to find them in ADD/REMOVE programs, but I probably did not know what to look for.
Any help?

 

[Tekara]

hmm, first thought is that your the victim of a joke. You can picture of the desktop and then make that the background image. What happens is that it looks like there's icons there but you can't select them or anything.

Next thought: use windows explorer to delete the items. right click on the start button and select "explore" then goto:
Cocuments and Settingsuser nameDesktop
and
Cocuments and SettingsAll UsersDesktop

Then delete all the icons that you no longer want.

Then you may want to look into using a program like ad aware or spybot to get rid of spyware. A lot of spyware likes to put icons on the desktop and most will re add the icons if they get deleted.

 

[Henry Gale]

Rob,
Didn't work.
Thanks though, I've never seen that feature before. Got to where you sent me, my icons were there, the unwanted ones were not.

 

[Tekara]

Did you try both folders? Desktop icons may be installed so that only your profile can see them or installed so that every profile can see them. So You need to make sure that you check the contents of both "all users" and the one for your username.

 

[todbnla]

Hum, strange enough I have this same problem, in fact, I have the same folder in like 3 places, my desktop, my d drive and in another locn, surely 2 are just extra copies but since the name is the same it wont let me delete the other, even the one on the desktop...or rename it, it says its in use :frowning:

 

[Rob Gillespie]

Sounds like you're infected with spyware/adware/malware. There's been a few threads recently on how to deal with such things but a good start would be to use SpyBot Search & Destroy, and also AdAware Personal.

 

[todbnla]

If your replying to me, Sorry, I already run those daily. As well as hi-jack this and a few others. I think my problem is just some kind of file setting security thing. :frowning:

UPDATE-After I rebooted I was able to delete them...

 

[Ian-Fl]

I stopped using internet explorer.
In my opinion there were too many security holes because 99% of people use it for the internet. The current browser I'm using is Firefox. It blocks all the garbage that explorer never bothered to stop. Ad-aware personal is also another good freeware program to solve your potential spyware problems.

 

[DaveNel]

Good news coming soon.. Bill Gates is redoing internet explorer and stated that all the doors will be under a lock and key. If someone wants in they have to ring your door bell

 

[Joseph Bolus]

I'm now using the "Firefox" browser as well.

And I've also noticed that I haven't had a single "hijacking", and/or "unexplained links popping up in the favorites folder", or other garbage of that nature, forced on me in the six weeks or so that I've been using it.

Now ... I still run Ad-Aware scans twice a week, plus I have Panda Anti-virus and Firewall active on my workstation ... but they've been noticeably less active in finding "spyware" and viruses over that same period of time.

It probably won't be long before the spyware, virus, and "worm" people start targeting Firefox as well as Explorer; but for now, this has been a most welcome respite!