explorer.exe

Hi, new to this site, recently clean install of windows 7 ultimate two weeks ago, about one week ago discovered that under 'windows explorer,' that my download icon was greyed out and when I clicked on it the attached screen popped up. Ran all the usual scans like scannow, virus with malwarebytes, restore, all to now avail. Whenever I save or download from the internet the file gets deposited on my desktop and no where else. Has anyone got a solution..I am a novice and not tech minded, so any solutions should wherever possible be in laymans language please. Thank you.

Which icon do you refer to, is it a download manager ? normally you would click a link to the file you want to download on the web site itself.

Hello, quick response, see attached screen shot. The icon is under the 'myfavourites' along with recent places and desktop. Does that help. Tried right click on that icon and restore previous..but nothing is found! Richard

Can you right click on "Downloads" and click Properties?
If so, are Location and Target set to a valid folder?

Do you have another User Account you can log in with and see if there is a problem with that account?

Hello again, see screenshot as you can see it's empty. I do not have another user account .would that be a wise thing to have? Thanks for your help by the way!

Richard:)

Welcome to SevenForums Richard!

Before you do anything, I suggest creating a restore point.
Here is a tutorial about this, and in there you will see a "Create" button.
System Protection - Turn On or Off

I'm sure the blank Target is a problem, but I don't know how or why it is blank.
You can try entering a folder location in there, click apply, and see if that fixes it.

My Target is C:\Users\David\Downloads
You would have to change "David" to your username.

Also on the General tab my Location is C:\Users\David\Links
Check to see that you have a Location set.

You can create another user account and try that.
I think it's a good idea to have more than 1 account.

As I've never seen this before, you can also wait for someone else that knows more about this to post here.
That's up to you.

regards,
david

It absolutely is a problem David, no target and no start directions, clicking on it wont do anything.
You need to create a new shortcut to your downloads folder, pop it onto the desktop and check the properties to make sure their is a target.

Also though I think the liknking to a library icon could be a problem, all of those are junctions that Windows uses, as the files can be from more than one location, I don't think you can make a shortcut to a junction.
Honestly I think your best route would be to create a new folder call downloads in the My documents folder, make a shortcut to desktop.
When you want to download the first time after doing this you'll need to browse to the new location, ever afterwards that's where they'll go unless you change it.