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
    2012-07-17T16:58:50+00:00

    Just to let people know about how I got this fixed in my case.

    The same problem appeared to me starting last week with my Windows 7 Professional (x64, English) laptop, i.e. everytime I would rename a folder, including when creating one, I would get the "Could not find this item" dialog, although pressing the Enter key (equiv. to clicking "Retry") would dismiss it.

    So, I found this thread and the post by varredor (dated April 29, 2010), and compared the registry entries of his reg file with mine. Since we had the same platform & language (Windows 7, x64, English), those registry entries were identical to mine *except* for a few entries I had missing on *my* computer. This meant I could use his reg file to fix my system.

    So, this is what I did to fix the issue on my computer:

    • Exited Explorer, the clean way just to be sure: CTRL+ALT+ SHIFT+Right-click on the Start Menu, and then "Exit Explorer";
    • Launched an instance of the Windows Task Manager by doing CTRL+SHIFT+Escape;
    • Killed any remaining instances of "explorer.exe";
    • On the Task Manager menu: "File" > "New Task (Run...)";
    • Browsed to the registry file (you have to change the extension to "All files" to have it showing);
    • Clicked on "OK" to shell-execute the registry file, and clicked on "OK" for the 2 Regedit-related dialogs (i.e. "Are you sure..." & "Changes have been applied...");
    • Still with the task manager, restarted Explorer (i.e. "File" > "New Task (Run...)", enter "explorer" then click "OK")

    IMPORTANT: Using the file provided by varredor will only work (and not mess your system further) if you have the same platform, i.e. Windows 7 x64, and same OS language, i.e. English.

    If your system is different: You have to find another system (one that does not exhibit the issue) with the same platform (32-bit or x64) and same OS language as yours so you can use its registry entries to fix the registry of your system.

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-10-09T20:23:43+00:00

    This is not the reason. It even occurs on new user accounts. I have 355 workstations that exhibited this problem from the day they were rolled out.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-02-23T17:17:55+00:00

    fyi - this error started after installing Windows 8 64 bit Feb 12, 2013 patches

    your fix resolved the issues - thx

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-02-28T07:49:24+00:00

    Just solved this issue on Windows 2008 R2 servers with the solution posted in http://www.overclock.net/t/721973/msupdate-kb980408-warning-to-all-win7-x64-users/10#post\_9211430

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