Desktop Shortcuts Keep Disappearing/Deleting Randomly
I have recently moved from from XP Pro to Windows 7 Pro and I am having a particular problem regarding desktop shortcuts: I have many shortcuts on my desktop for quick access to my companies 2 large global network drives, however, at random Windows seems to delete all of my shortcuts to any network folder! With having about 15-20 shortcuts this is causing me considerable time and pain having to find the folders and creating new shortcuts; so i have 2 questions: 1. Is there any way to stop this happening or is it a bug in the system? 2. Is there a quick way to backup and restore desktop shortcuts? FYI - I use my Laptop both On and Offline from the my companies network, in addition I sometimes connect to the companies networks via a VPN; maybe this is causing an issue. Hopefully someone out there can help me?! Cheers.
September 5th, 2011 9:07am

This is a well-known problem, which as it turns out is actually a kind of twisted "feature" of Windows 7. Basically, there's a script that Windows 7 runs that regularly checks your desktop shortcuts and if it finds more than 4 of them "broken" (i.e., pointing to something that's not available at the moment), it removes all the "broken" ones! I guess Microsoft feels somehow responsible for helping you keep your desktop clean. Perhaps this is a Good Thing for the non-technical people in their commercials who think up things in the back of a taxi. This is the script that governs this activity: C:\Windows\Diagnostics\Scheduled\Maintenance\TS_BrokenShortcuts.ps1 If you look in it, not too far from the end is a statement that compares the length of the list of broken shortcuts to 4. It's the only occurrence of the numeral 4 in the entire script. If you replace the 4 with a very large number, your problem should be solved. -Noel
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September 5th, 2011 2:16pm

Noel, Thanks for taking the time to respond. Unfortunately i do not have access to modify this script; however i have sent a request to my IT department to modify it, hopefully it will solve the problem. I have come across a possible short term solution. If this script is part of the maintenance system I presume turning off the maintenace system would stop this script from running? Cheers.
September 6th, 2011 7:25am

I presume turning off the maintenace system would stop this script from running? That seems to follow, but I haven't tried it personally. -Noel
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September 6th, 2011 9:22am

The easiest way to fix this problem is go to Control Panel; Action Center; Troubleshooting; click Change Settings on the left hand side; then turn Computer Maintenance off.
January 11th, 2012 10:25am

Turning maintenance off entirely seems extreme. How about this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2642357 -Noel
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January 11th, 2012 7:39pm

Thanks for the tip, Andre!
January 11th, 2012 8:02pm

Noel, you are about the only responder on this issue I have found that gets it. The "fix" is to turn off the icon removing feature and not the rest of the system maintenance pieces (which seem to be the useful ones). All too often, the responses are simply to do whatever it takes to get the problem to stop happening, even if that workaround causes other problems. And you respond without letting your frustration turn into a rant (of which I am quite guilty). Your solution above to change the number of broken links in the script is probably the most elegant solution I have seen so far. It sounds much easier than some of the others, though if you still have to take ownership of the file, it is a little more difficult, but worse case would be tied for the easiest solution. The fix you posted (2642357) worked for me for a couple of machines in the last month, but in the last week failed on two machines (the hotfixes both said "this Microsoft Fix it does not apply to your operating system or application version."). I assumed that the hotfixes had been integrated into a windows update patch, and the one rolled into production lost it's network shortcut icons. I checked the registry and the keys were there. Another machine got the same error trying to install the fixes, but the registry keys were not there. That machine has not gone into production yet and I have not tested it yet. I manually added the keys and will test it this weekend though. The point being that the posted hotfixes may not work properly (mine are all W7-32bit pro versions). And even the manual entry may not work properly. I will update this if I find out anything definitive, though I will be changing the number of icon threshold on the machine that currently isn't working properly.
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April 18th, 2012 10:51am

Thanks. I'll go one better: I'll say that MICROSOFT HAS NO BUSINESS deleting anything from our desktops. What makes them think that they have any right whatsoever to delete any file, folder, shortcut, or whatever that we've put there, however "broken" they may consider it (and it's pretty clear they're not all-knowing)? -Noel Detailed how-to in my eBook: In development: Configure The Windows 7 "To Work" Options Configure The Windows 8 "To Work" Options
April 18th, 2012 4:10pm

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