Win XP Desktop Icons (Invalid Shortcut)

[R_Lehr]

In our IT department we are upgrading all workstations, current and new, to Win XP. We "tweak" XP to fit our requirements. One item we do is create desktop shortcuts for what we consider "standard applications" (e.g., Word, Excel, etc.). After clean install of XP [& SP-1] I would be logged on with Administrative rights (local and network) install standard apps; go to "Programs", right-click / "Sendto: desktop as shortcut". After I've done this for all apps, I select these newly created shortcuts, cut and paste to "Documents and Settings / All Users / Desktop".

Occasionally when a user logs in, the shortcut icons are grayed out and not active. Right-click on the icon, properties, general Tab and it shows the correct path as "All Users\Desktop" - but also shows "invalid shortcut".

Anyone know why?

Thanks in advance. RL

[Paul Sperry]

Right-click on the icon, properties then
try clicking on the shortcut tab and make sure
the target is correct.

[Jon Finley · Accepted solution]

If you COPY the icon or Create a shortcut pulling the icon directly off of the User's menu, it can contain a link back to the User's profile.

If you use Explorer to copy the same items over from one profile to another, they won't contain the User profile reference.

I saved Windows Explorer both ways, out to C:\TEMP and came up with different files sizes 1.28K vs 1.37K for supposedly the same link file (WINDOW~1.LNK from DOS level). I found my User ID embedded within the LNK file.

I believe that if your Users are NOT in the Admin's group, that the link would believe itself to be corrupted if it couldn't access the other profile.


Jon

[Charles L. Carter]

When you locate the icon in explore, right click on it, then click on create shortcut instead of dragging it.