cdr478s Posted February 7, 2006 Report Share Posted February 7, 2006 I have a computer thats icons have lost their file pointers or had their settings corrupted somehow. The icons itself have lost their individual graphic that overlays it (don't know how else to put it). They did not work and could not be deleted, so for the time being, I created new shortcuts on the desktop and those seemed to work. As I said, I cannot delete the old icons and don't know how to restore them. When I try to delete them, I get the message: Cannot delete (name of icon): Access is denied. Make sure the disk is not full or write protected and the file is not currently in use. I am assuming that I should not have created these new icons maybe. I am logged on as administrator and know that is not the problem. I am at a loss on what to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarecrow Man Posted February 7, 2006 Report Share Posted February 7, 2006 What have you done to cause this problem?This can happen if you delete or move a program's folder without using the add/remove programs utility, or if you have changed to location of "installed programs".It could also be your shell32.dll file, which is where all Windows Icon's come from.What happened for this reaction is what I am getting at... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdr478s Posted February 7, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2006 What have you done to cause this problem?This can happen if you delete or move a program's folder without using the add/remove programs utility, or if you have changed to location of "installed programs".It could also be your shell32.dll file, which is where all Windows Icon's come from.What happened for this reaction is what I am getting at...Well, I wish I knew what exactly it was. The intern using the computer alerted me to the problem. Our web guy was also using this computer remotely and loaded installed some programs on it. So maybe thats when it occurred. I was hoping I would not have to reformat and reload everything, but is that my only option without knowing exactly what program/file did this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarecrow Man Posted February 7, 2006 Report Share Posted February 7, 2006 What I would do, is right click > properties, and click "find target" It should locate the file, and update the shortcut. You may then have to update the icon manually.If this does not find the file, it is likely someone has deleted the files.Are the shorcuts to a network resource that has been disconnected or changed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdr478s Posted February 7, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2006 The shortcuts were to all the Program icons on the desktop. Norton Anti-virus, Diskeeper Professional, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdr478s Posted February 7, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2006 Find Target is grayed out. It acts as if I do not have admin privlidges. If I click the security tab, I get a message that tells me I can't change settings but I may take ownership. Its very strange, it does this under my several logins that have admin rights as well as the administrator profile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarecrow Man Posted February 8, 2006 Report Share Posted February 8, 2006 The shortcuts were to all the Program icons on the desktop. Norton Anti-virus, Diskeeper Professional, etc....Find Target is grayed out. It acts as if I do not have admin privlidges. If I click the security tab, I get a message that tells me I can't change settings but I may take ownership. Its very strange, it does this under my several logins that have admin rights as well as the administrator profile.I am not sure I understand. I know the shortcuts were on the desktop, but were they pointing to C:\Program Files\Program Name\Program.exe (for example) or a network location such as \\computername\sharename\program.exe.This is important, because if they were network shortcuts, and you have either changed a drive letter, or the network location has changed or been removed, the shortcuts will no longer work.As for find target being greyed, and Windows asking you to Take Ownership of the files makes me think perhaps the computer has been confused. It believes the files belong to someone else, or something else like another computer.If a system restore is not an option, and no back up has been made; Set a restore point or make a backup and try to take ownership as Administrator. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted February 8, 2006 Report Share Posted February 8, 2006 If this is an XP system, the first thing I would try is to download (and install) Tweak UI from the Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP page, then run Repair Icons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted February 8, 2006 Report Share Posted February 8, 2006 It seems that this machine is in a professional environment so, is there no backup to restore conditions as they were? If not, I would have serious words with the person in charge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdr478s Posted February 8, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2006 It was pointing to C:Program Files..... All files that people work on are saved on the network, so we do not backup individual computers. We are a small company, so if there is a problem with a machine, it is dealt with individually and we can just reformat if needed. We don't use Ghost since many employees have different software requirements. We used that at the University I used to work at, but it doesn't seem applicable here. I'll check into the restore point and see if that is something I can do in the future. I have a feeling I won't be able to use that. It seems like this computer thinks that the user is not logged in with group administrator privledges and maybe just user. However, I have checked that again and again. I'll see what more I can do, but I have a feeling I will be reformatting and reloading all the software. Thanks for the responses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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