desktop folder without a name

I'm sure I've read about this somewhere, but I can't seem to find the thread again.
There's a folder on a friend's desktop that has no name. When I right-click on it, the choices that show up are "cut, create shortcut, and delete ", not the usual right-click folder options "open, explore, search, etc." When I double-click on the folder, as I recall, the folder just gets highlighted, but doesn't actually open. We changed the settings in Explorer to show all hidden files/folders.
My friend has no recollection of how long it's been there, nor how it got there.
Is it safe to just delete it? For whatever it's worth, Spybot and AdAware scans both result clean.

 

To be on the safe side go here : http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html

and download a program called HijackThis if you don't already have it.

Open the program and 'Do a scan and save a logfile'. Start a new thread in the 'Removing Spyware and Virus' forum and copy and paste your HijackThis logfile to the new thread.

The pros there might be able to tell you where the folder came from and whether its safe to delete. If malware has installed the folder then its assumable it will be replaced if you delete it without first getting rid of the malware. Also deleting it may cause more problems. On the other hand, it could be safe to delete without harm but if you don't know where it came from then take the safe option.

 

Thanks, John - will do! I'll try to make a mental note to myself to post back afterwards, just to close the thread.

 

The right click options don't include Properties? Have you checked Task Manager to see if this folder is listed?

 

Whiskeyman:
Nope, the only right-click options are the four that I listed in my initial post. It's not as if there are even any options grayed out: cut, create shortcut, and delete - that's it. Don't see the folder listed anywhere under Task Manager, either, although seeing as it's nameless, I'm not sure what I'd be looking for.
We seem to be having irreparable problems getting OE to work on that same computer, though, so I think I'll probably be reinstalling Windows in the next week - hopefully the folder will not reappear after that, and the issue will be moot. [fingers and toes crossed!!]

 

i'd take a whack at tweakui's 'desktop' settings page.

i'd also maybe check it's 'special folder' settings to see if any point to that desktop folder.

i'd also throw a full chkdsk at it and see if any corruption is reported. the 'fix auto' box is a good idea here.

in any event, it's probably bad or some form of corruption of system folders.

curious if it's the ~ folder/file left by the extra copy of the address book in OE/outlook as it were. least this used to be an issue on some setups. haven't seen it in a long time but ... i THINK that it used to assume 'current directory' for strorage and usually end up in the folder above desktop. just a shot in the dark here.

 

Veeeeery interesting, skeet, because the OE address book seems to be at the root of this friend's problem with OE!
When she tries to open OE, she gets a message saying: "The address book failed to load; OE is incorrectly configured. Please reinstall. "
When she tries to open saved .eml files, she gets one of the following messages:
"There was an error opening this message. An error has occurred. "
or
"OE could not be started, it may not be installed correctly. Make sure that your disk is not full or that you are not out of memory. Contact MS support for future assistance (0x8004104f,1400)" [The computer is 2 months old, has 160 GB hard drive which is still 9/10ths free, and 1GB of RAM; WinXP Home, by the way]
Googling the error messages returned various possible fixes, including something about the .wab files possibly being set to "read only ". Did a search on her computer for *.wab, making sure that hidden files/folders were included in the search, but the search came back saying no files were found. I remembered Christer mentioned the default location of the .wab & .wab~ files in his "moving default folders" sticky, so I checked the location manually - sure enough, both files were there. Just out of curiosity, I ran 'Search' again, but it still turned up nothing.
I figured with OE not working, and the Search function apparently not working either, I'll probably end up having to reinstall Windows anyway. But before I do that - can you direct me anywhere in particular where they talk about the issue you referred to? As long as I'm contemplating reinstalling the OS anyway, I might as well give all possible fixes a try first!
Thanks!

 

Thank you, Pete - I'll try to get over there tomorrow and give it a shot.

 

Tried every one of the suggestions, including uninstalling IE/OE and then reinstalling them - the programs were subsequently gone from the Add/Remove Windows Components list, but they still showed up under 'All Programs', and we got the same error message as before when we tried to open OE. Plus, even though I downloaded IE SP1 from the MS site, when I tried to install it, I got a popup saying it couldn't install because there was already a newer version on the computer.
Tried System Restore back to the date the computer was purchased 2 months ago, as a last resort. The nameless folder disappeared, but then the computer started asking for some .msi file for practically everything we tried to open on the computer - told us to put in the MS Office 2003 disk for it, but that was a trial thing in the first place, and the trial period was up. So we couldn't access the file. Did a google search, found plenty of other references to the same problem, but couldn't find anywhere to actually download the file we needed.
Called Medion tech support, who basically started walking me through the steps of reinstalling Windows. Before we'd gone too far, I asked him if he was going to have me attempt a repair installation, or a whole clean installation. He said the latter. I asked him if had ever planned to tell us that we would need to back up our data before doing that. He just continued yapping instructions at me. Thanked him for his time, told him we had stuff to back up before going this route, and I exited the reinstallation.
At least I now know that my friend does indeed have a full XP installation CD, so I'll be able to partition her drive and everything while I'm at it next week.
Thanks for the help, everyone!