disappearing mapped drive shortcuts on desktop

[Scott T]

Not sure when or why it happens but about 5 shortcuts I have on the desktop to mapped drives\folders will disappear. Everything else is fine. X64 7264.
Any ideas?

 

[Babel17]

They disappear or become greyed out/ not showing the icon?

If they're just greyed out then the desktop needs to refresh.

 

[Scott T]

Completely gone

 

[Babel17]

Right click on desktop, choose "Personalize". On the left hand side choose "Change desktop icons".

I always make sure "User's files" is checked. Maybe you should experiment with the "Allow themes to change desktop icons" option. It's near the bottom.

Edit: I assume you have "Show desktop icons" enabled? Right click on desktop. Maybe some tweaked setting changed it.

 

[7echno7im]

Did these drives become disconnected at some point while logged in? I have noticed that desktop short cuts act differently than folder shortcuts.

 

[Scott T]

Right click on desktop, choose "Personalize". On the left hand side choose "Change desktop icons".

I always make sure "User's files" is checked. Maybe you should experiment with the "Allow themes to change desktop icons" option. It's near the bottom.

Edit: I assume you have "Show desktop icons" enabled? Right click on desktop. Maybe some tweaked setting changed it.

Users files is just the win7 'my documents' equivalent. Allow themes is checked.

 

[Scott T]

Did these drives become disconnected at some point while logged in? I have noticed that desktop short cuts act differently than folder shortcuts.

Pretty sure the mapped machine was running fine the whole time it did it today but tomorrow I'll do an experiment and see if it effects it.

 

[Scott T]

got a chance to reboot the other one and it had no effect on my shortcuts. hit refresh a couple times, tried to open one while it was gone. it asked me if I wanted to delete the one I was opening but that was it.

 

[7echno7im]

That is very odd. Hmm... Was this an upgrade? Were these drives mapped prior if so? Also, when they do dissappear from the desktop, are they still mapped in the "Computer" section?

 

[Scott T]

The mapped drive still shows up in file explorer and shortcuts located in folders on the desktop are all still there, just the ones on the desktop get deleted (not in recycle bin either). It was a clean install. This has happened about 3 times to me. The computer I'm mapped to is running XP btw, not that that should matter.

 

[Babel17]

The mapped drive still shows up in file explorer and shortcuts located in folders on the desktop are all still there, just the ones on the desktop get deleted (not in recycle bin either). It was a clean install. This has happened about 3 times to me. The computer I'm mapped to is running XP btw, not that that should matter.

Does XP have a setting that hides less frequently used desktop icons? IIRC it had something like that which I always used to disable.

 

[Babel17]

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/personalize/organize.mspx#2

Yeah, there is such a thing but it would create a backup folder.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306542

Use the Desktop Cleanup Wizard

To start the Desktop Cleanup Wizard:

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2. In Control Panel, click Appearance and Themes under Pick a category.
3. Under or pick a Control Panel icon, click Display.
   
   The Display Properties dialog box is displayed.
4. In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Desktop tab, and then click Customize Desktop.
   
   The Desktop Items dialog box is displayed.
5. Under Desktop cleanup, click to clear the Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days check box if you do not want the Desktop Cleanup Wizard to automatically start every 60 days.
6. Click Clean Desktop Now.
   
   The Desktop Cleanup Wizard starts.

Remove Unwanted Shortcuts

To remove unwanted shortcuts:

1. In the Welcome to the Desktop Cleanup Wizard dialog box, click Next.
2. In the Shortcuts dialog box, a list of shortcuts are displayed in the Shortcut to Clean Up list. The shortcuts that you click are removed from the desktop and placed in the Unused Desktop Shortcuts folder on the Windows desktop. If you do not want a shortcut to be removed from the desktop, click to clear the check box for that shortcut, and then click Next when you are finished.
3. In the Completing the Desktop Cleanup Wizard dialog box, view the items in the Shortcuts box to confirm that you want them removed from the desktop, and then click Finish.
   
   The Desktop Cleanup Wizard moves the selected shortcuts to the Unused Desktop Shortcuts folder and then quits.

 

[Scott T]

I just installed 7600 so this could all be moot, reckon we'll see.

 

[driecken]

I had this same problem on 7000 build when I first tested it a while back, it also did the same thing to my regular icons (my computer, network)etc.

Quick launch icons would go invisible too, usually I would attempt locking w+L or log off but that didn't seem to do the trick.

Moving to 7100 I don't experience that problem now when using the os, but found that issue strange nevertheless.

 

[Scott T]

So much for the 7600 fixing it theory, just rebooted and they were gone again. This 7600 has a lot of low level cpu usage going on too and I cant see whats doing it. Damn betas
Going to try uninstalling avast! home and see if anything changes.

 

[7echno7im]

Yeah... sounds odd. Was 7600 a clean install? I haven't ever had a problem like this. I have a mapped drive, you can explain your process so I can test it out as well? Did you just map a drive then drag and drop the icon to the desktop?

 

[Scott T]

for 7600 I just did an upgrade, 7264 was clean.
Yeah, I mapped a drive and then I just drag and dropped various folders from the mapped drive to my desktop.

 

[Scott T]

Still doing it. I've upgraded to 7600 16385 since also.
Something I've noticed: there's a shortcut to the same computer on the desktop that doesnt disappear but it uses the network name instead of the mapped drive name in the location.
I think I'm just going to replace all the links with ones using network name and skip all this hassle of replacing them everytime they disappear. Maybe the mystery will be solved someday.

 

[Yukosan]

Right-click on your desktop, then check-on View>>Show Desktop Icons.
Hope it helps

 

[Scott T]

Right-click on your desktop, then check-on View>>Show Desktop Icons.
Hope it helps

Oh yeah, big help.