Desktop shortcuts to items on network drives sometimes disappear from desktop

The reason this happens obviously from previous reply's, is that Windows 7 does not allow more than 4 "Broken Shortcuts" on your desktop. If you have more than 4, when the troubleshooter runs its weekly check it deletes them all. (We have users that have 15+ shortcuts) This was a big problem. A lot of forums advise to turn the troubleshooter off. For those of you who don't want to disable the troubleshooter........Here is a solution. This fix will allow you to keep the troubleshooter enabled and put as many shortcuts on your desktop as you want and they will never be deleted by the troubleshooter.

1. Click Start
2. Click All Programs
3. Click Accessories
4. Right-Click Command Prompt
5. Click Run as administrator
6. In the command prompt type the text below. This command takes ownership of the 

   TS_BrokenShortcuts.ps1 file. (You can copy and paste)

Takeown /F C:\Windows\diagnostics\scheduled\Maintenance\TS_BrokenShortcuts.ps1

7. Press "Enter" You should get the message below.

SUCCESS: The file (or folder): "C:\Windows\diagnostics\scheduled\Maintenance\TS_BrokenShortcuts.ps1" now owned by user "XXXXXXX".

8. In the command prompt type the text below. This command gives you full permissions to the

   TS_BrokenShortcuts.ps1 file. (You can copy and paste but make sure you change

   "USERNAME" to your user name)

icacls c:\windows\diagnostics\scheduled\maintenance\TS_BrokenShortcuts.ps1 /grant USERNAME:F

9. Press "Enter" You should get the message below

processed file: c:\windows\diagnostics\scheduled\maintenance\TS_BrokenShortcuts.ps1

Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files

10. Close the command prompt box
11. Click Start
12. Click Computer
13. Double Click the C: drive
14. Double Click Windows
15. Double Click diagnostics
16. Double Click scheduled
17. Double Click Maintenance
18. Right-Click TS_BrokenShortcuts
19. Click Edit
20. Go to line 44. The very end of line 44 should look like this

)) -gt 4))

21. Change the 4 to any number you want. I used the number 500. By doing so, the user would have to have 501 or more broken shortcuts on the desktop in order for the trouble shooter to delete them.

****22. Click Save****

23. Close the window

DONE!

Hope this helps!! =)

This fix worked like a charm! Thanks for the post.

I had tried to change system script that is responsible for deleting desktop icon and hoping that will fix the problem, Tried messing up with registry also nothing worked. I spent so many hours to fight with this issue. Finally I gave up this route and I did easy solution which anybody can do!

One thread tells disabling "schedule", I never like that idea.

My work around is - create as much shortcut as you want and never lose a single shortcut ever without doing any thing advanced! I used a principle called "KISS" (Keep it simple stupid!) and am happy.

Here is how:

1. Create shortcuts in your desktop as much as you want.
2. Create a folder called 'My Shortcut' in either "Documents" or where ever you want.
3. Drag and drop all shortcuts in 'My Shortcut' folder you created.
4. Then you never lose a thing! That simple! Since Microsoft's shell script cleans shortcuts with broken links only from desktop, it will not touch shortcut within folder, that's the work around I have been doing and I am happy with it. Hope this helps you.