What do I do about a shortcut without it's original file?

[enderkevin13]

Okay, so I basically uninstalled a program, and it's shortcut is still on the desktop. Now I tried to put it in the recycling bin, but it gives me an error. I tried hiding the file as well, but same error.

This file has got to go, because I don't want it taking up space that could be used for something important.

[wildweasel]

Shortcuts take up almost no room at all on your hard drive.

[enderkevin13]

Shortcuts take up almost no room at all on your hard drive.

I mean space on the desktop, not the hard drive. It's gone now. Just had to shutdown real quick

[edward850]

I like how you told us everything except the thing we actually needed; what the error actually was!

[enderkevin13]

I like how you told us everything except the thing we actually needed; what the error actually was!

I just shutdown the laptop.

[edward850]

That's not an error message. Look, next time you ask for technical support for something, give us the details of what you actually see, not what you think we need. It's beyond annoying and wastes an exceptional amount of time.

And yes I will take my time to complain about this to you because if I can have a customer give me a straight answer first bloody time without needing to pull teeth, I can expect you to do exactly the same. Some courtesy for the lack of psychic powers would be nice.

For the record (based on your limited explanation) it can be guessed that what actually happened was the shortcut was deleted, but explorer missed dumping it from the cache. As it was on your desktop which rarely if ever resets the cache (you can't normally close the desktop), the file reference sat there unchanged and attempting to delete it would just result in windows not being able to find it. Rebooting of course resets explorer, thus eliminated the old reference.

[Dancso]

Does the old right click (on desktop) -> refresh help in that case btw?

[edward850]

That's always been a wildcard. It can do, but I personally find it's fixing visual errors than logical ones. That seems to be entirely situational, though.

[enderkevin13]

That's not an error message. Look, next time you ask for technical support for something, give us the details of what you actually see, not what you think we need. It's beyond annoying and wastes an exceptional amount of time.

And yes I will take my time to complain about this to you because if I can have a customer give me a straight answer first bloody time without needing to pull teeth, I can expect you to do exactly the same. Some courtesy for the lack of psychic powers would be nice.

For the record (based on your limited explanation) it can be guessed that what actually happened was the shortcut was deleted, but explorer missed dumping it from the cache. As it was on your desktop which rarely if ever resets the cache (you can't normally close the desktop), the file reference sat there unchanged and attempting to delete it would just result in windows not being able to find it. Rebooting of course resets explorer, thus eliminated the old reference.

It said the file couldn't be found just.

[Viscra Maelstrom]

what exactly WERE you uninstalling?

[enderkevin13]

what exactly WERE you uninstalling?

I was uninstalling OBS multiplatform just, and it was bugging out for some reason.

[Trance]

That is not where "just" goes.

[wildweasel]

I feel like the important moral of the story here is that a reboot fixes more things than you might expect.

[Kappes Buur]

Okay, so I basically uninstalled a program, and it's shortcut is still on the desktop. Now I tried to put it in the recycling bin, but it gives me an error. I tried hiding the file as well, but same error.

This file has got to go, because I don't want it taking up space that could be used for something important.

If you have not done so already, download and install the free version of CCleaner by Piriform.
https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner



Then run CCleaner to eliminate all superfluous files.
After that, run Registry Scan for Issues to clean most unwanted/unused registry entries.
Sometimes it is necessary to scan the registry two or three times.