Duplicate Program Icons on Desktop

For months, any downloaded software adds two of each icon to my desktop. If either is removed, the other does nothing. Windows will not allow both to be removed. Both function as long as both are shown but desktop sure is cluttered. Anyone?

 

Hey PeteC,
Thanks for responding. They are program icons such as McAfee, Belarc, etc.

 

Have you ever tried renaming or relocating the desktop folder?

Do you have a folder named "Desktop" on your desktop?

Is your computer setup for multiple users? If so are all users using the same "Files and Settings" or is this setup for individual user customizations?

Do a file search for "desktop" and see how many you've got and where these are located. What ya' got?

====Possibility====
NOTE*One recent help-net user recently had this problem and cure it by running adaware and spybot. I'll never understand how this fixed the problem but apparently it did.

====Possibility====
Another ghost glitch from the past has been known to happen when removing or customizing the shortcut arrow on the shortcuts, using tweakui.

====Possibility=====
The most logical (to me) is some registry mixup that occurs when doing some manual working or configuring of the desktop folder. The mixup occurs in pointers to the various desktop folders such as the one in c:\windows\desktop or c:\windows\all users\desktop or the registry setting for the common desktop:[for win98x]

For example:

"Prevent Duplicate Icon When Creating Desktop Shortcut "
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Certain system configurations enable a duplicate icon to appear on the desktop when a shortcut is created. Moving either the original shortcut or the duplicate shortcut to the Recycle Bin causes the remaining desktop shortcut to become disabled. Edit the registry as follows to prevent the duplicate icon from being created. Provided your windows paths and directories are the same as follows (if not, edit as needed).
C:\windows\All users\Desktop
C:\windows\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp
C:\My Documents
C:\WINDOWS\All Users\Start Menu\Programs


REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Shell Folders]
"Common Desktop "= "C:\\WINDOWS\\All Users\\Desktop "
"Common Startup "= "C:\\WINDOWS\\All Users\\Start Menu\\Programs\\StartUp "
"Common AppData "= "C:\\WINDOWS\\All Users\\Application Data "
"Personal "= "C:\\My Documents\\ "
"Common Programs "= "C:\\WINDOWS\\All Users\\Start Menu\\Programs "

=====Possibility======
Another board has a member who found herself in this mess by:

QUOTE "trying to copy the icons I have on the desktop from C:\windows\desktop
> to C:\windows\all users\desktop. I hoped to have all users have the same
> desktop icons. I Know this is possible in Windows NT. I'm of course
> running Win 98. "

She fixed it using this methodCutNPaste QUOTE word for word)

"I fixed it (when I put my mind and a little elbow grease into
it). I had to (follow closely it's tricky)

1. Rename the desktop folder. i.e. from c:\windows\desktop to
c:\windows\desktopold

Because the desktop folder is a system folder, Windows won't
let you delete it. I was, however able to delete it from another
computer on my LAN.

2. Create a new desktop folder in the windows directory.
C:\windows\desktop.

The desktop rename won't trick Windows... It actually realized
the change I made and recognized C:\windows\desktopold as the desktop folder. Windows is smarter than I thought!!

3. Use Tweak UI to change the location of the desktop folder from
C:\Windows\desktopold back to C:\windows\desktop (the blank folder)

4. Copy the icons from C:\windows\desktopold to c:\windows\desktop.

Icons appeared only once again! I'm sure this is just a workaround and there's somewhere in the registry an entry that was corrupt. But I couldn't find it so I figured I could force a registry change. Anyone really familiar with Tweak UI might be able to figure out why this worked. "

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I've been back and have edited...Hope this helps. Please update your post with the results, good or bad.

 

Hi Goddez,
Using Find there are two 'Download'folders. One is C/aol extras in which there is nothing but AOL items.
The other is C/Windows but it does not appear there . However if I click on it in 'Find' there it is. It holds one each of the icons on my desktop. If I clik 'Up' I go to Windows and then 'open files' and it holds no 'Desktop' folder. This seems to be an unrelated problem but problem nonetheless. What is this?

 

You have what you call Download folder confused with what is supposed to be the Desktop. C:\Windows\Desktop is a special folder. Try this little quick fix. Go to the link below.
http://www.microsoft.com/ntworkstation/downloads/PowerToys/Networking/NTTweakUI.asp
You will be downloading TweakUI. Before you download, do not do anything that will make it appear on the desktop. When you click Download Now on the webpage, and the window appears to start the download, click on Save, you will get another window prompting where to save it, before you click on OK, click the little arrow thing, and choose My Documents or any other folder beside the one it is currently set at. Remember where it went.
Now go to where it is saved and double click the file, it is a self extracting file, note where the files are extracted to. Go to the folder where they are extracted. There will be a file named TweakUI.Inf. It will say Setup Information for file type. Right click on it and select Install.
Go into Windows Explorer and click on the C:\Windows so that folder is highlighted. Go to the toolbar of Windows Explorer at File, then New, then Folder. Name this folder 'Desktop', verify it is at C:\Windows\Desktop.
Now go into the Control Panel, and double click TweakUI, it will have a Help window appear, just close the Help window.
Now look at the tabs of the top of TweakUI, click on the one named My Computer. Look under the big white window showing A: B: C: D: E: F: , etc, there will be an area where it says Special Folders. It will say 'Common Program Files', with a little arrow next to it, click the little arrow and select Desktop. Note the area just below this will give the current location of the Desktop folder, if it says anything other than C:\Windows\Desktop, click on the Change Location button, you will get a warning about changing folders, click on Yes. Another window opens, highlight the Desktop folder located at C:\Windows, then click on OK.
You will need to reboot, and good luck.

 

Mark,
Thanks for the response however I am not able to complete as you suggest. Tweakui was downloaded to 'AOL downloads' and then unzipped to 'C/Win/Temp. Four files were extracted but neither is named tweakUI.inf

 

The correct file is there, since you have the four files. Windows Explorer hides the last three letters, since it is a Known File Type. You have all four files, with the name TweakUI as the name, however the last three letters are invisible in three of them. One is named TweakUI.Cnt, that is not the correct one though.
I guess you have Large Icons selected as the way you view in Windows Explorer. One will look like a notepad with a little gear on it. This is the one you want. There is another with two gears, this is not the one.
You will know you have the right one, because when you right click on it, the word Install will only appear in the little right click menu [Context Menu] on the correct one. The others will not have the word Install appear in the little right click menu.

 

Well, Pete, hope you are patient. Found the install and did. Now it seems every step has a misfit of some sort. In Windows Explorer did C\windows\file\new\folder but cannot name 'Desktop' as the file already exists.

 

Explorer error is just telling you it cannot create a folder named c:\windows\desktop because one is already there.

Well.. now we know you have a desktop folder located in c:\windows. Do you have one in the c:\windows\ "all user" folder also?

Any located anywhere else?

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Tweakui icon should now be in "Control Panel" folder. You'll need to open this and click on the tab named "My Computer ". There's two categories: one named "Drives" and below that is one named "Special Folders ". This has a white dropdown field or space, with folder names in it. You need to click on the arrow on the rightside of this named_folder_field/space to access the complete dropped_down list. Scroll to "Desktop" and click on it. Make sure the location field (just under the "Folder "_name dropdown you using now) has the path c:\windows\desktop

Using the same method...
You may also need to double check the setting for "Common Program Files" which should have a "location" path of c:\program files\common files

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I noticed you've stated any "downloaded" software shortcuts duplicate. Does that mean, the only shortcuts that duplicate are downloaded software related?

In other words...
I'm trying to find out if there are shortcuts that do not duplicate such as ones you make or add yourself. Maybe ones that are created with the rightclick option "Of send to desktop as a shortcut "????

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Hi almart,

I see you have classified yourself as a beginner. If you have any questions or need further explanations on how to do something or find something, just give a shout and I'll be happy to supply a "Step by Step ".

I never know just how much information to include in a post . To coin a phrase, "Sometimes it's to hot, sometimes it's to cold and sometimes it's just right "....

 

I am curious as to what File Types are on the Desktop. In Windows Explorer go to the folder C:\Windows\Desktop, in the area to the right where the files are listed, right click on a blank area so that you are not selecting any files. In the right click menu that appears, select View, then Details. When done correctly the Icons will change to a listing of files organized into columns. At the top of these columns, you will see the words Name, Size, Type and Modified.
If any of the files listed are shown as anything other than Shortcut, post the names of them here.
Do the same for the folder C:\Windows\All Users\Desktop.
I am getting the feeling you have programs installed onto the Desktop, rather than just having the Shortcuts to them.