[SOLVED] How to delete a shortcut icon that "doesn't exist"

[Fred Wax Bean Lasagna]

Hello, I'm not super savy with computers, so bear with me,

My mother, somehow (who knows how) created a shortcut on the desktop. A shortcut not to a folder or file, but to a whole bunch of website URLs. The name of the file is crazy long. The file type is "internet shortcut (url)."

I can move the shortcut around on the desktop, but I can't delete it, I can't rename it, I can't move it into another folder. I can't compress it. I can't shred it.


I've tried deleting using command prompt and the RMDIR /S /Q command.... no good
I've tried deleting using command prompt and the del "\\?\C:\Users\Darlene\Desktop\(name of shortcut) "..... no good
I tried using Windows Powershell using the Remove-Item -Recurse -Force command ..... no good
When trying to shred it using Eraser program, is says it doesn't exist.

When I right click the icon I show only the following info/options:

Clicking on properties shows the following:

So apparently, it has already been deleted? but Windows is still showing it? I am allowed to drag it around the desktop but that's it. Weird.

Any Suggestions? Not the biggest deal in the world, it isn't causing any harm, but it's just a mystery that begs to be solved.

thanks!

 

[Eximo]

Possibly search for it in the system registry, you might be able to prevent it from displaying at least.

 

[stonecarver]

Go down to almost to the end of the page to where it says.

How to Take Ownership of a Folder in Windows 10? - GeeksforGeeks

A Computer Science portal for geeks. It contains well written, well thought and well explained computer science and programming articles, quizzes and practice/competitive programming/company interview Questions.

www.geeksforgeeks.org

FAQs to Take Ownership of a Folder in Windows 10​

See if by taking ownership it lets you take control and than rename it and than delete.

It's the extremally long title that seems to get you in trouble and windows freaks out and than your stuck.

The maker of the website KNEW that and they do it on purpose. If your mom still wants that link just shorten 90% of the fluff words and you still can keep or trash like normal.

 

[BFG-9000]

There are all kinds of non-ascii characters that can get into filenames which Windows handles poorly.

In general, what Windows cannot do, often 7-Zip can. Try using 7-Zip to delete the file or at least use it to rename things to something more Windows-friendly. I like the Portable version of 7-Zip.

 

[Fred Wax Bean Lasagna]

Go down to almost to the end of the page to where it says.

How to Take Ownership of a Folder in Windows 10? - GeeksforGeeks

A Computer Science portal for geeks. It contains well written, well thought and well explained computer science and programming articles, quizzes and practice/competitive programming/company interview Questions.

www.geeksforgeeks.org

FAQs to Take Ownership of a Folder in Windows 10​

See if by taking ownership it lets you take control and than rename it and than delete.

It's the extremally long title that seems to get you in trouble and windows freaks out and than your stuck.

The maker of the website KNEW that and they do it on purpose. If your mom still wants that link just shorten 90% of the fluff words and you still can keep or trash like normal.

I tried, but I can't "take ownership". It doesn't give me the option when I right-click. Again, I have a feeling the shortcut doesn't really exist, so that's probably why there aren't the normal options when I right-click it.
Just weird.

 

[Fred Wax Bean Lasagna]

Holy crap I did it! I was able to do it with 7-zip. I just stumbled upon the solution (happens all the time with computers)

I had read that by compressing and using the option of deleting the original file after compression , might get rid of the undeletable file (or in this case shortcut). However, I couldn't right click and use 7 zip on the shortcut.

I opened 7-zip directly, but couldn't add the shortcut for compression. However, I did a computer search for the name of the shortcut (in the desktop folder) and the search result WAS able to be right-clicked and compressed/deleted.

Crazy stuff, but somehow it worked. Thanks for the replies guys! 👍

 

[Eximo]

Neat, I'll have to remember that one.

 

[Fred Wax Bean Lasagna]

Neat, I'll have to remember that one.

I swear, I don't remember what, when or why, but it's in my head that sometimes it seams there are slightly different properties, or options to do things, to a file or folder when it appears in a search result, as opposed to trying to manipulate it directly. Can't remember for sure when I experienced it, but I seem to remember it.
Who cares lol. That stupid, unimportant shortcut was driving me nuts. Good Riddance 😊

 

[Fred Wax Bean Lasagna]

There are all kinds of non-ascii characters that can get into filenames which Windows handles poorly.

In general, what Windows cannot do, often 7-Zip can. Try using 7-Zip to delete the file or at least use it to rename things to something more Windows-friendly. I like the Portable version of 7-Zip.

Thanks for that reply. I had not seen your post before trying (and finally succeeding) to use 7-zip to remove the shortcut. I had tried 7-zip yesterday but couldn't get it to work, but finally stumbled upon the solution.

 

[User5432]

I couldn't find how to compress the shortcut using 7-Zip, however, I was able to simply right click the shortcut and send it to a compressed zip file. An error appeared saying that the shortcut was empty (or something), but then the shortcut just disappeared.

 

[Fred Wax Bean Lasagna]

I couldn't find how to compress the shortcut using 7-Zip, however, I was able to simply right click the shortcut and send it to a compressed zip file. An error appeared saying that the shortcut was empty (or something), but then the shortcut just disappeared

If you have 7zip installed, you should see a choice when you right-click a file or folder to "Add to Archive" among other choices. After choosing add to archive, Under "options", you can choose "delete files after compression".

But I'm not sure what steps you took. As long as you got the desired result?