Cant delete pesky folder...aarrgghh

[John65]

Hi im new to the forum and i cant seem to delete a folder on my desktop...and if i move it it pops back up on the desktop in the same place....I merged two folders of the same name and i think this may be the root of the problem....any help would be appreciated....Thanks ..John

 

[dwarfer66]

if i cant delete or move a file/folder i use a free program called unlocker. try that

 

[John65]

I did and it said it was not being used by any program....i just turned the read only function off and it restored to the desktop again.....

 

[dwarfer66]

just choose the delete option, it may require you to reboot to complete the action.

 

[cyclic]

It might be pertinant to know what the folder is called and from where it came.
Some system folders, inclucing junctions cannot be deleted and incidentally should not be.

 

[ReviverSoft]

You could give the free version of this program a try.

 

[John65]

Its actually a folder i created and i scanned some pdf,s into it, then i dragged and dropped it to another folder and some how i merged the new folder with the other folder of the same name and now i cant get rid of the shell folder..its not a system file or one of any importance...The same problem happened once before and i used it for other documents in fact its still on my desktop.....

 

[Britton30]

See the link for MalwarBytes in my sig. Download it and it has a feature called File Assassin which should delete this pesky file for you. Find it under the More Tools tab.

 

[Jacee]

Go into safe mode and delete the files inside the folder, then delete the folder. Reboot

 

[John65]

Well i tries anti malware bytes and it didnt recognize the folder in question.....and i ran a full system scan with the same tool but turned up nothing...the folder in question is empty and ill try to delete it in safe mode......ill keep ya guys posted...Thanks...

 

[fseal]

Hopefully that will get it, but if it pops up again... I'd start looking at your scanner software. After you specified that folder as a target for the scanner software, it could be recreating it every time you boot "just in case" so it's there the next time you want to scan something. And yes a LOT of software unnecessarily installs itself to launch on start-up even though you use it maybe once a month in reality...

 

[richc46]

If you cannot delete in safe mode as suggested, here is a tutorial that has helped many
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/55721-folder-delete-command-prompt.html?filter

Some other suggestions
http://winhlp.com/node/39

 

[Layback Bear]

I have used Search Everything to find and remove pesky things. Some times I had to use it in safe mode so the pesky thing wasn't running. Use caution to make sure you remove only what you want to. Once removed by Search completely it's gone. It kind of works like regedit.exe but easier.

 

[John65]

Well i think i got rid of the folder in question ...i did a system restore and it hasn't appeared on my desktop yet.....and the original same name folder s in the old location and my computer is running alright ...Thanks a lot guys..John

 

[Layback Bear]

After removing a peaky thing from my computer I use Ccleaner to wipe Free Space to make sure it doesn't come back again. Make sure the wipe indicates Free Space ONLY.

 

[John65]

Well the folder hasn't returned i restored my computer to an earlier time and i think its gone forever...LOL...Thanks for the advice guys....John

 

[Britton30]

You're welcome!

 

[Layback Bear]

John it's nice to hear you are back into the Happy Computing World again.