Mysterious shortcut won't go away

[onu2002]

OS is Windows XP

Something is automatically creating a shortcut to C:\Documents and Settings\Laura\My Documents, and as soon as I delete it, it's there again. It's shown directly under 'Desktop' in Windows Explorer, but it's doesn't show on the desktop itself. I've run disk defrag, ad-aware, c-cleaner, registry defrag, registry scrub, spybot search & destroy, mcafee full scan, and nothing gets rid of this mysterious shortcut.

It seems harmless, but no shortcut should be created automatically, and no shortcut should be 206 MB (size)/118 MB (size on disk)! There's something going on, but I'm stumped.

This shortcut did not appear when I created a new profile and logged in under it. I tried to Google the issue, but all I get is how to create a shortcut.

[charly]

have you tried bucking up the files.

[onu2002]

Originally posted by charly
have you tried bucking up the files.

What's that mean?

[Shindig78]

I would run a complete virus scan immediately. Also be sure to check that your anti-virus software has been updated recently, and that you are able to access anti-virus sites such as mcafee.com and avg.com. If you are in doubt, you can download a free updated copy of AVG anti-virus software at www.avg.com from an uninfected computer, then copy it to a CD or flash drive and run it on the computer in question.

I also recommend downloading and running the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool, which can be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/ma...e/default.mspx

[krygny]

Originally posted by onu2002
OS is Windows XP

Something is automatically creating a shortcut to C:\Documents and Settings\Laura\My Documents, and as soon as I delete it, it's there again.
...

What does the icon look like and what's it called? (You didn't say.) It sounds like you're describing the shortcut to your "My Documents" folder. That's a special Windows-created shortcut that's supposed to be there by default. If you delete it, Windows will recreate it every time you log on to your desktop.

Try desktop properties > Desktop (tab) ... Customize Desktop (button). See if you can do anything from there. For more options, try installing Tweak UI from Microsoft's Power Toys page.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/D...powertoys.mspx

[Shindig78]

Originally posted by krygny

What does the icon look like and what's it called? (You didn't say.) It sounds like you're describing the shortcut to your "My Documents" folder.

Good call, krygny. Looks like I skipped right over the resolution -- doing it my way would have called for a few hours of work while overlooking the easier (and accurate) fix. Good thing I do not do this as my day job!

[onu2002]

It appears that it is the default My Documents shortcut, because when I check "My Documents" in Display Properties>Desktop>Customize Desktop>General>Desktop icons, it shows up on the desktop. But it's named "n," just a lower-case 'n'. Why isn't named "My Documents? And why is it 100-some MB? Shortcuts are supposed to be like 1 KB.

(McAfee is up to date & full scans have revealed nothing. I can access anti-virus websites. I have not run the Malicious Software tool.)

[krygny]

Its size is whatever the size of the folder is (e.g., C:\Documents and Settings\<user_name>\My Documents). It's not a regular shortcut like you create yourself. It's Windows-generated. But the data is not duplicated on disk. I don't know but it could be like Unix has symbolic and logical links. In Windows, if you copy most shortcuts, you're only copying the link, not the data. If you try to copy that shortcut from your desktop, you'll be copying the entire folder and all the files therein.

Why it is named "n", I don't know. Maybe you named it that inadvertently at some point while you were dikking with it and it just stuck. Try going into properties and, under Target (tab), select Restore Default (button). If you don't want it on your desktop at all, uncheck it in the desktop properties, as I described in my preceding post.

[krygny]

Which raises another question: You said you tried to delete it but it kept coming back. You may have deleted any data you may have had in there. Windows may have only regenerated the default directory structure.

[onu2002]

Okay, guys, I think you've nailed it. I renamed it "test," deleted it, refreshed, and there it was again, still named "test." I changed the name back to "My Documents." Deleting the shortcut did not delete the contents of the actual folder. And the "size" of the shortcut is the same as the actual folder.

Thanks for the tips. Looks like I was worried about a virus all this time for nothing.

[krygny]

[krygny]

Oh yeah, I almost forgot - always remember to buck up your files.

Wasn't that the same guy who has door hundles on his Pilot?