Unknown desktop folder.

Hello! Back again.

My daughter has a folder on her desktop which is rather strange. It is a plain yellow folder, with no name. The right click gives only the options of "cut' "delete" or "copy ". There is no "properties" option.

When clicking on "delete" the pop up says that it is too large for the recycle bin. She has looked at the folder through DOS and found it is a "System Folder" but found out nothing more.

She does frequent on-line anti virus scans, and also does utility scans with her Norton. Sometimes these scans save a file with information. For that reason, she doesn't want to just delete the folder without finding out what is inside it.

She recalls that she thinks she had a folder of this type on her computer before, but at that time she was reformatting her HD, so paid no attention to it. She has 2 teenage boys who download lots of junk, and she keeps the computer cleaned out for that reason.

It is Win98 on a pc. 6 gig HD - always close to 5 gig full, which is why she has to keep it cleaned out, 200+RAM.

What she wants to do is find out what is in that folder. If it isn't anything important, she can delete it, but why would the right click be so strange?

Any ideas?

Thank you.

Pat

 

Pat Boden--A little strange. Could be the sign of spyware. But normally clicking on a folder and opening it to see what is inside will not cause any problems. Maybe you can right click on some of the contained files (especially any .exe files), then Properties to see what this is all about. Let us know.
P.S. If she finds nothing of value, then delete the individual files, or compress the folder (using a Zip program) and then maybe it will fit in the Recycle Bin. Is her Recycle Bin empty? By right clicking on it|Properties, you can change the number of bytes it will hold temporarily. Change the size back after all this so it will not hog too much space.
P.P.S. You say she looked inside of the folder using DOS. Do not know what technique she used, but here is another. Download "Directory Printer" from
http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptdirprn.asp.
When installed, check the box under Print Options to print "Both Files and Folders ".
You will wind up with a text file on the desktop with the info on, hopefully, the names of files in that folder.

 

Strange folder

clicking on a folder and opening it to see what is inside will not cause any problems.

She could not open the folder. Clicking on it to open would not work. That is her problem. She wants to see what files are in the folder incase it is something that needs her attention, before she deletes it. The folder could even be empty, as there is no "properties" option on the right click.

There has been mention of a corrupted file in Windows that caused this. Something about "shell" I think. Someone suggested deleting "shell ", shutting down the computer and upon reboot "shell" would be replaced.

I thought you may have come across something like this before and would like to get your opinion. It's a tough one.

Thank you.

Pat

 

Pat Boden--Has she rebooted?
If that does not help, see here
http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=37074
I assume the idea of using Karen's Directory Printer has been tried.
If this has happened only in the last few days, she could try
Start|ShutDown|Restart in MS-DOS Mode|type scanreg /restore|pick a date before the problem|Enter|Wait|Reboot.

 

Folder

No. It has been on there for some time. She can't even get the "properties" to see when it was made.

I'm waiting to hear more from her, as I keep passing information along to her.

Thanks.

Pat

 

Have you tried looking for the folder in Windows Explorer?

 

I would run Scandisk.

 

There has been mention of a corrupted file in Windows that caused this. Something about "shell" I think. Someone suggested deleting "shell ", shutting down the computer and upon reboot "shell" would be replaced.
You do this with 98 and the computer will not boot up again.

If you opened Windows Explorer, and went here;
C:\Windows\Desktop\
Is it there?


gives only the options of "cut' "delete" or "copy ". There is no "properties" option.
Would this happen to be the old "Setup MSN" icon that appears with every install of 98, except someone deleted the icon file (located in C:\Windows\System\Oobe) for this 'folder' and you get the plain one? One way to find out. Go to Start\Run, type in Regedit and press Enter. Navigate to this key (looks like folders on the left);

Hkey_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace

Under that one, there may be three Keys named with{bunchoflettersandnumbers}. By left clicking on each one, then look to the right. You will see the word [default] with either one of these to the right of it.

My Documents
Recycle Bin
Setup MSN access.

Delete the key (folder) that produces "Setup MSN access" to the right of [default], leave the others alone. Then Refresh the Desktop.
The right click would be so strange if this is the problem. As for when it was made, it would be the date windows was installed.

 

folder

Thank you, Mark. I'll pass this along to her, but I would be amazed if she went into the registry.

When you say, when Win98 was installed, that could have been not too long ago, as she has reformated the computer a few times, and it may have appeared at the last installation.

Computers, computers, grrr.

Pat