Renaming any folder produces "Could not find this item". Clicking "Try Again" always works. Why?

Anonymous
2009-11-11T13:37:01+00:00

This is not the same issue as similar postings that have to do inability to delete folders that contain zero byte files. 

If I try to rename any folder in my system, I get "Could not find this item" with the choices "Try Again" and "Cancel". When I click "Try Again", it always succeeds. So - my system isn't crippled - but it is so totally annoying. I can even right-click on my desktop, and choose "New...  Folder" and type in a name, and I get "Could not find this item". The interesting thing is that the item's name does change even before I click "Try Again". 

If I have a folder named "Folder1" and I rename it to "Folder2", I get the error that "Folder1" Could not be found - which is actually true, as it is already renamed to "Folder2".

Why is Windows 7 looking for the old folder name after renaming? I've also disabled AVG's live scanner to no avail.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Files, folders, and storage

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Anonymous
2010-04-29T20:39:55+00:00

I finally got it.

I used the same solution for the similar issue in Windows Vista. Once i got to my company laptop, i exported this 2 registry keys.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\FolderDescriptions

Merged into my pc and voilà !!

The 'shell' command also works again (ex: shell:personal brings up the account folder)

I uploaded the reg file and you can get it here http://cid-fb5a28bc4a1cc9b6.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/Folder%5E_fix%5E_win7%5E_x64/FolderDescriptions.rar

This is for Win7 x64. Use it at your own risk.

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-10-26T07:54:11+00:00

    Johnwait you solved my problem!!

    I tried varredor's fix but unable to fix it. The idea now is to:

    1. open task manager. 
    2. end task explorer.exe
    3. file > run > "varredor's folder description.reg"
    4. restart explorer.exe

    AND IT WORKS!!!

    If by just running varredor's folder description.reg while explorer is running, and restarting the pc, it wouldn't work.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-01-11T07:28:24+00:00

    This fixed me right up.  I could delete folders and rename files, but I kept getting the error when trying rename a folder.

    This was exactly what my registry needed.  Thanks!

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-01-11T01:05:21+00:00

    Thank you so much for your help. Even after almost 3 years your solution has worked for me. Finally I can go to sleep happy, after trying to solve this problem all day :D

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-10-25T17:26:57+00:00

    Worked fine for me.  Thank you, geezer!!!

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