Cannot access desktop icons any longer

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

John Monahan wrote on Mon, 8 Aug 2005:

>I have had the strangest thing happen to me. I have WindowsXP on a laptop.
>It has worked for well over a year fine.Then suddenly I cannot open (most)
>files I have as icons on my desktop. I am the only user and have
>administrator status. For example if a click on the Microsoft Word icon. It
>comes up with:-
>
>"Windows cannot access the specified device, path or file. You may not have
>permission to access the item".
>
>If on the other hand I select the word program from the start/menu system it
>comes up fine. Many (but not all) of my icons are now behaving like this.
>I cannot figure out what happened. Since I am an administrator why can I
>access everything?
>If I make a new user the (new) desktop icons work fine, but most of my
>original desktop icons and program data is missing.
>
>Would really like suggestions. What do you think is the cause. Is there an
>easy fix. Is there an easy way to drop all my icons/data access etc to the
>new user I created and simply delete the old one.
>
>
Hi John

I did already answer one of your previous posts on Sunday. Perhaps you
didn't see it? It helps avoid confusion though if you stick to just one
thread instead of three :-)

Can you right-click on the misbehaving icons and look at the Properties?
Particularly on the General tab -- what does it say for "location"? What
is the exact path? I have a feeling your Desktop folder may not be where
it ought to be. . .

--
Nightowl