Some desktop shortcuts disappeared!

[scottmcgee]

I had a problem with some shortcuts recently. I set Distributed Link Tracking Client to manual and stopped it. It solved my problem. It's one of the services found in Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services. Or access it directly by going to services.msc in the Search Panel. I also had a problem with renaming files which turned out to be a Distributed Link Tracking Client problem too.

Edit: Forgot to add that sometimes you can do a Refresh and it brings back the shortcut.

Hey, thanks a LOT for posting this. It sounds like what I needed. I have stopped the service and set it to manual so it doesn't auto-start. We'll see if that does the trick, though it might take a few weeks to be sure due to the random and infrequent nature of the problem.

Way to go!!

Scott

 

[zBobG]

I have had Distributed Link Tracking Client DISABLED since I installed Seven, Windows still deleted some of my desktop shortcuts including one I had just used a few hours before. So I think it's not related to desktop cleanup of unused icons - which Seven shouldn't do without my permission anyway!

I think it is caused by the scheduled "Diagnosis" task in the Task Scheduler that was mentioned in a previous post. I've just now disabled that task, it did run at 1 AM this morning and I think it deleted my shortcuts because I'm sure they were there last night.

I'm going to look in the Windows backup and see if my shortcuts can be retrieved.

From now on I'm also going to copy all my desktop shortcuts into a regular folder.

 

[Gunthar Rowe]

I have had Distributed Link Tracking Client DISABLED since I installed Seven, Windows still deleted some of my desktop shortcuts including one I had just used a few hours before. So I think it's not related to desktop cleanup of unused icons - which Seven shouldn't do without my permission anyway!

I think it is caused by the scheduled "Diagnosis" task in the Task Scheduler that was mentioned in a previous post. I've just now disabled that task, it did run at 1 AM this morning and I think it deleted my shortcuts because I'm sure they were there last night.

I'm going to look in the Windows backup and see if my shortcuts can be retrieved.

From now on I'm also going to copy all my desktop shortcuts into a regular folder.

As I said, I have done now both methods and yes mine was set to 1am also, but my system is running often at this time so it was a very common problem... I hope that between the two tweaks here this will have solved our issues

 

[Gunthar Rowe]

oh FYI, and I successfully used Windows Restore to get all the shortcuts back

 

[egoche]

I have shortcuts to 12 RDP connections & four Excel files on my desktop and noticed they were missing this morning. This is the second time this has happened (been using Windows 7 for less than three weeks).

After reading Gunthar's post I tested it by recreated four of the shortcuts and then running the Windows Diagnosis task. Within ten seconds, all of the newly recreated shortcuts disappeared.

I'm now leaving that particular task disabled. Thanks Gunthar!

 

[dnorris]

I've had certain shortcuts disappear overnight...
but only the ones to:
Computer
Control Panel
Programs & Features
and 3 MS games (Freecell, Solitaire, Mahjong)

Seems to be only shortcuts to system files....
This has happened at least 3 times since I installed RTM.
I'll try disabling the Diagnosis task to see if that helps.

7 Ult 64 bit

 

[Gunthar Rowe]

@ egoche, glad it worked well for you

 

[Lange]

Since i'm dealing with the same problem i'm reading this with quite some interrest.
Like ZBobG already mentions above, he service Distributed Link Tracking Client is not the problem since it's disabled here and the problem still occurs.

The onto the Windows Taks Scheduler. Disabeling this could solve the problem but the discription of the task says: "The Windows Scheduled Maintenance Task performs periodic maintenance of the computer system by fixing problems automatically or reporting them through the Action Center".
For me this task does a lot more then just cleaning up broken or missing icons (in most cases these aren't even missing or broken at all).
So if you disable this task to prevent Windows from deleting icons, i recon you disable a lot more which my be not such a good idea...?

 

[zvucnjak]

Hello. I registered mostly because of this topic. Although I got Win7 recently so I'm sure there's plenty of time for him to give me more headache.

First of all, let me get this straight:
Not all, but only some of the shortcuts disappear?

in my case:


Second of all, it's not unused or broken shortcuts that's been disappearing, but the ones I use frequently. I have some program shortcuts that have not been used for a while, but those are still there!
That's why I believe it's not related to 'maintenance' tasks or similar stuff...... (at least I hope Win is not so stupid to delete used shortcuts and leave unused)...

Anyway... I disabled the Distributed Link Tracking Client (whatever that is), and will see how it goes...
I'm open for suggestions...


EDIT:
The shortcuts disappeared again just now! So DLTC disabling doesn't help.

 

[capDaz]

Desktop shortcuts disappear in Windows 7

I second zBobG's and DocBrown's idea, of putting the shortcuts to [mapped drives, USB U3, NAS, etc] in a folder, then put a shortcut to the folder on the desktop. <sigh>

 

[grossgary]

This just happened to me as well. Windows Seven Dell laptop. 64 bit i think.

If we disable the "Windows Scheduled Maintenance Task" - what else are we disabling? Is that bad in other ways?

Someone else asked but I see no responses.

 

[caruncles]

network connection & missing shortcuts

I've noticed funky things with the network connection. It doesn't always hook back up after logging on. I'll have to click on the NETWORK shortcut in win explorer and wait for it to populate. If the above-mentioned "management" programs run while the PC is asleep or otherwise disconnected from the network, is it possible that it doesn't find the targets for these shortcuts and "cleans" them up? Anyone chased that rabbit yet?

 

[scottmcgee]

I have found a workaround that works quite well. It won't work for most of you because I have cygwin installed on my system, and use a script in there, but someone could program something with a windows batch file.

I have two commands, save and restore. Save deletes all my shortcut backups, and then copies all the desktop shortcuts to a backup folder. In cygwin, that is any file in the desktop folder with the extension .lnk. The restore command copies anything in the backup folder to the desktop.

What makes this really nice is the Desktop Restore software from Jamie O'Connell, found at midox.com - mid ox Resources and Information. for free. This software will allow you to save and restore the desktop location of all the icons. In the save command, I call his program to save the layout, and in the restore command, I call it to restore the layout. Works really nice. (Though, not as nice as if MS fixed this!!)

Perhaps someone who scripts in Windows can craft a similar solution. Jamies Desktop Restore code is lovely native windows stuff, but my "scripts" are just cygwin shell commands.

I hope this helps some of you!

 

[270Mag]

Some desktop icons missing.

I know that this is a pretty old thread, but I borrowed Gunthar's idea of disabling the Task Scheduler, and tweaked it instead of disabling it.

Here's a recap of the problem many of us have been having. We have desktop icons that are shortcuts to folders, files or programs on systems accross a network. Every so often, these icons turn up missing. For me, this happens (sometimes) when I bring my laptop home. When I do so, the links that were on my desktop are no longer valid because they refer to networked locations at my office.

Task scheduler was set to run every Sunday at 1:00AM. When this happens, Task Scheduler sees these disconected icons, and deletes them.

Solution: Configure Task Scheduler to run only when I know my laptop is at work AND connected to the LAN. This applies to my WIN7. Other OS's may be similar.

1) Click Start icon. Enter "Task Scheduler" into search window.
2) Click on Task Scheduler link at top of window.
3) Expand the tree in the left pane to: Task Scheduler Library | Microsoft | Windows | Diagnosis.
4) In the right pane, double click "Scheduled."
5) Under Triggers tab, edit the trigger to a time when your computer will be at work or set the trigger to run On Idle.
6) Under the Conditions tab, customize for your tastes, but also do the following. Under the Network heading (near the bottom of the dialogue window), check the "Start only if the following network connection is available." Select your workplace network.

The problem with this "solution" is that it doesn't protect desktop icons that point to networked locations at home from being deleted. The ideal solution would be to allow the diagnosis to run whenever, but disable it from checking broken desktop links. I don't know how to do this, or if it can be done.

 

[scottmcgee]

Hey, I don't know what it was exactly, but MS seems to have finally fixed this problem. I haven't had my icons disappear in several weeks now! Yay!

On the other hand, about the same time, my computer has quit activating the screensaver or using the power settings to shut off my monitors. I wish I knew what that change was and how to fix it. Any ideas?

 

[curtiswardwell]

From what I have read about this posting, shortcuts are disappearing from the desktop I hope this is correct. I found this KB article from Microsoft. Hope this helps.
Desktop shortcuts disappear in Windows 7
Curtis