Desktop shortcuts to items on network drives sometimes disappear from desktop

Anonymous
2009-10-05T10:31:59+00:00

I have a number of shortcut icons on my Windows 7 (RC1) desktop to networked items - some are folders on a NAS, some are mapped as drives, etc. However, sometimes Windows 7 seems to simply remove all of them without notice and I have to recreate all the shortcuts to my NAS items again.

I wondered at first if this may have been because Windows would sometimes boot before all of my network devices became available, but when that happens it just correctly marks the icons with a red cross to indicate that it couldn't find them at boot time, and as soon as the NAS is available then the shortcuts work fine.

However at random intervals, all seven of these shortcuts simply disappear from the desktop. All other shortcuts and icons are fine, and the mapped drives are still present in my 'Computer' display - it's just the NAS-related shortcuts on the desktop which vanish.

Any idea why this might be happening?

Andre

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Accessibility

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Anonymous
2009-11-02T19:48:31+00:00

If you create desktop shortcuts to removable storage places such as NAS the icons will disappear from time to time because Windows 7 has a built in task schedule to clean up broken and unused links. 

To prevent the task from running you need to disable the task in the task schedular: start-programs-accessories-system tools-task scheduler

Expand the tree in the left hand pane until you get to Task Scheduler Library-Microsoft-Windows-Diagnosis.

In the right hand pane, right click the task named Scheduled and click Disable.

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Anonymous
2015-04-30T16:17:45+00:00

This feature is extremely annoying.  Whenever I take my work laptop on the road, this has happens and I never knew why until now.  In my case, when the shortcuts to my network folders and applications disappeared, there was no trace left, not in my computer or anywhere.  And trying to figure out how to remap them all was a nightmare!!!  Productivity lost, headaches, etc...  thanks MS!

Fortunately, I found a way to get them back!   Check this out:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows\_7-desktop/how-to-restore-desktop-shortcuts/0cfe39d3-16c7-49c3-b538-6d5a3f5b6abe/

After doing the copy from previous versions, I was able to find the missing shortcuts and drag them from the 'Desktop Temp' folder to my desktop.  Thank God.

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-01-16T20:32:09+00:00

    worked for me. 

     There would not be a need to delete broken links if they could be repaired, as was the case in Win95, Win98, Win2000,  and WinXP.  Sometimes improvements are not.

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-01-16T13:45:31+00:00

    I am fairly certain that the problem is in the teask scheduler. It is Monday morning and my network shortcuts are gone once again. I checked the task scheduler and the "Diagnosis" program was set to run on Sunday. I have disabled it and will see how my desktop is a week from now. Here is how to disabled the task 'Diagnosis'->

    To prevent the task from running you need to disable the task in the task schedular: start-programs-accessories-system tools-task scheduler

    Expand the tree in the left hand pane until you get to Task Scheduler Library-Microsoft-Windows-Diagnosis.

    In the right hand pane, right click the task named Scheduled and click Disable.

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-01-03T20:58:24+00:00

    Its 2012 now.  The problem still exist. 

    I dislike having to disable the Maintenance function just so my shortcuts don't disappear each week.  My shortcut are linked to locations on mapped drives (which do re-establish on login).  They are typically removed at lunch (seems to agree with the 10 minute downtime rule), but at that time the drives are properly mapped.  I have no idea why it calls the links broken.  I use these links daily and they work just fine.

     

    Microsoft needs to give us an option of disabling the automatically delete icons function.

    If you look back a few posts from yours I listed how to go and modify the job to essentially keep the maintenance tasks and change the number of links that have to be "bad" to 400 or higher.  This is a work-around, not a solution.. but it does allow you to keep the maintenance tasks enabled...

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