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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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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
    2011-11-14T17:12:18+00:00

    What a huge time suck. Here is my short notes on what to do:

    **Change Counts to 400

    %SystemRoot%\diagnostics\scheduled\Maintenance\

    (Note:  First take ownership of and set modify permissions for these two files)

    in TS_UnusedDesktopIcons.ps1 - change Line 50 to:

        if((Get-ListLength $unusedDesktopIcons) -gt 400)

    in TS_BrokenShortcuts.ps1 - Change Line 44

    if(-not([String]::IsNullOrEmpty($brokenDesktopShortcuts) -and [String]::IsNullOrEmpty($brokenStartupShortcuts)) -and (((Get-ListLength $brokenDesktopShortcuts) + (Get-ListLength $brokenStartupShortcuts)) -gt 400))

    I have tried editing those files through notepad, but I get an access denied error  when I try to save.

    When I look at the permissions on the files, I see that the only User that would be able to edit is "Trusted Installer" , Even though I am an admin on the machine.

    I have tried using Windows Power Shell ISE (running as an admin) to edit and save the file, with no luck.  I have even tried saving with a different file name, but I get access denied when trying to save to the maintenance folder as it has the same permissions as the file.

    I can disable the "Sheduled" task from taks scheduler, but I'm not sure if it is disabling any worth while tasks.

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-11-14T17:44:06+00:00

    You will need to open security on the file first and take ownership of it - then you can change the permissions on the file to allow you to change/write.  Certainly you need to be an admin on the machine as well.

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-11-14T18:47:05+00:00

    You will need to open security on the file first and take ownership of it - then you can change the permissions on the file to allow you to change/write.  Certainly you need to be an admin on the machine as well.

    Thanks

    After I took ownership I was able to edit my permissions to full control and was then able to edit and save the files.

    Hopefully this is a lasting workaround.

    This is a weird issue, I didn't start having this problem until a wipe clean and reinstall, which I have performed on several other computers in my office, without ever running into this.  I checked the values on other systems, and they are still set to 4 and 10.

    So... that means the real issue lies somewhere else.

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