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
    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
    2012-02-11T03:53:43+00:00

    I am a MS Partner and investigated this same issue with a very helpful support engineer at Microsoft. The short answer is:

    Do not create your shortcuts referencing a mapped drive. For example, say Drive P: is mapped as \\server\FolderA. You then create a desktop shortcut called FolderA. It's properties are simply P:\

    Windows 7 Maintenance troubleshooter will remove that shortcut, considering it to be "defective" (assuming there are at least 4 similar "defective" shortcuts in total). Yet, if you create the desktop shortcut with properties \\server\FolderA (rename it to "FolderA"), it will NOT be considered "defective" and it will not disappear!! To do this, on the desktop, right click, click "New", click Shortcut and in the properties box type \\server\FolderA . In the next window, name it "FolderA".

    The part of this that still goes unanswered is WHY DOES THE MAINTENANCE TROUBLESHOOTER CONSIDER A SHORTCUT BASED ON A MAPPED DRIVE TO BE "DEFECTIVE"?

    You can run the troubleshooter manually from control panel to test. You will see the "bad" shortcuts removed. After recreating them as described above, running the troubleshooter will NOT remove the shortcuts.

    Ira Shapiro

    Ira Shapiro Computer Consulting

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-02-11T15:17:40+00:00

    Since it doesn't run under the users account, the drive is not mapped/doesn't exist.  The UNC would work though, good catch!

    I know of three people who have had this problem -  such a simple thing for MS to fix...

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