Persistent icon on desktop - Win 7/64

I have a zero (0) bit icon on my desktop that I cannot delete. I appears to be a corrupted link to a YouTube video that I recently viewed. It's a document icon but contains 0 bytes. I tried right click > send to Recycle Bin then get File Not Found error. I tried simply dragging it to Recycle Bin, same error message. The label under the icon reads: "Tompoll and the Glaser Brother's Last Performance."

Any suggestions, please? Other than being an eyesore, it is not harmful, just cluttering my desktop.

TIA

 

Try typing cmd into the Start/Search box and hitting <enter>.
When the command window opens type in cd desktop

Type in dir tom*
If it only lists that one file (important that it only list that file) with "Tompoll and the Glaser..." the type del tom*.* and hit enter.
See if you get an error.

 

Thanks Sach2, I followed your advice and got "File not found." Apparently, it's only a file header. Unless you have another suggestion, I may have to simply live with it.

 

Hmm,
Does the file show if open cmd and do the cd desktop and type just dir instead of dir tom*?

Not a fix to get rid of the file but if you right-click it and select Properties you may be able to check the Hidden box to keep it from showing on your desktop.

 

The only way I could delete a 0 byte file that refused to delete inside of windows was with a certain bootable disk that has minixp or Puppy Linux. May not be worth the trouble though. As sach2 said, you can try to hide the file.

Can you rename it to something like "dd" and then delete it?

 

Don, I think I ran across the same problem years ago with WinME or Win98 and I think it had something to do with a corrupted icon cache. Rebuilding the cache is possible and instructions can be found on the 'net (search for 'rebuild iconcache' [one word]). The rebuild is pretty easy as I recall.

Failing that, I suggest trying Unlocker (download from MG). Though it seems to be not exactly for your situation, I'm pretty sure I've used it for the same problem you're having. It's a quick download and install and has a right-click context choice for 'unlocking' the selected file. The program may say that the file isn't locked and ask what you want to do, 'delete' being one of the choices. So choose 'delete' and I think that will do it. I can't make a file like yours to test my procedure, but like I say I'm pretty sure I've used Unlocker to delete 'undeletable' files. Unlocker is made to delete locked files, but I'm pretty sure it will delete one like you have, too.

Good luck and if you find a solution please post it so we can all learn from it.

 

Problem has gotten worse. Today I have 5 persistent icons on my desktop. FWIW, they are all broken links to YouTube videos.

Some background information that may help with diagnosis: Suddenly last Friday, I lost audio on YouTube. I had been using Firefox 14.01 without a problem. On advice of a friend I switched to Chrome and the issue was resolved. I followed suggestions from others having the same compliant but no joy. I totally uninstalled then reinstalled both Firefox and Adobe Flash Player but still no audio with FF/YouTube. Incidentally, I have audio from Pandora and all other sources. In checking the mixer, nothing is muted.

I followed the Firefox fix, still no joy.

I run a boot-time malware scan with Avast and found Win32:IBryte-U [PUP] and sent it to the virus chest.

My OS is Windows 7/64.

TIA:cry

 

Can you see these desktop icons in Windows Explorer? If so, can you delete them from there?

 

The icons appear in Windows Explorer but attempts to delete them yield: "File not found!"

 

I think you might want to do a chkdsk to make sure it is not a filesystem error.
Computer>rightclick C: and select Properties. Under the Tools tab select Error Checking. Leave just the first box checked and hit Start. It will schedule for next reboot. Reboot and let it run. When windows starts back up see if you can delete the files.

You may also want to see the full file name so we can determine what type of files they are. In any Explorer window hit Organize at the top left and then choose Folder and Search options. On the View tab untick the box for "Hide extensions for known filetypes". Hit Apply. That will make the three letter extension of the show. Give the three letter extension of one of the files.

 

Solved! Went to cmd line, finally located the file then deleted it. Thanks for everyone's help. So nice to have that desktop real estate back.

 

Thanks for the solution.

I see those instructions I gave way back weren't correct for Win7 64bit. The command prompt opens in a different folder than I thought which is why you got the file not found. Sorry about missing that.