Can't Delete Shortcut

[dutch]

My OS is Windows 2000 Pro.

Sometime ago I placed 3 shortcuts, to some MS KB articles for later reading, in a folder in My Documents.
However, when I wanted to open one of them, I couldn't. I right clicked to Properties and got message saying "The properties for this are not available".
Also couldn't Delete nor it drag into the Trash. The icon is the IE icon, but didn't have shortcut arrow.
Any words of wisdom out there on how I can fix this?
Thanks

PS Not sure if this has anything to do with it, but the file name is fairly long.

 

[Liquidlen]

You can try deleting the file in Safe mode or Command prompt .

 

[Rik]

Running scandisk can sometimes help too!!

 

[dutch]

Thanks for your response. Tried Safe Mode, but didn't work. Youre other suggestion of Command Prompt, I don't understand. Just not computer savy enough.
Can you explain process of doing this?
Thanks

 

[zerocoolzz66]

Well do you get an error when you try deleting the short cut?

 

[dutch]

Running scandisk can sometimes help too!!

Thanks. Tried your suggestion. Didn't fix the problem sorry to say.

 

[dutch]

Well do you get an error when you try deleting the short cut?

When rightclicking the corrupted shortcut, in Properties I get the message "The properties for this item are not available".
As I had previously mentioned, the icon changed from the IE with arrow icon the a MS icon, the one with flag.
Tried deleting in Safe Made, didn't work. Ran chkdsk on C: didn't work either.
Any further suggestions?
Thanks

 

[Liquidlen]

Thanks for your response. Tried Safe Mode, but didn't work. Youre other suggestion of Command Prompt, I don't understand. Just not computer savy enough.
Can you explain process of doing this?
Thanks

Although the command prompt is easy to use, it can also cause serious damage if you are not careful.I would suggest you do some reading in the Help files to get the basic understanding. Deleting a couple of files is very simple and as long as you type the file names correctly you will be fine. However, I would not like to walk you through it without you having some background info.
It would be worth it to you to do this . The command prompt is the best and fastest way to deal with some of Windows peculiarities, especially when it comes to secuity/profile conflicts and admin/system functionality.

When you cannot use a simple delete command from the GUI it is usually because you do not have sufficient privilidge or some program/process is accessing that same file at the same time.
Pressing F8 at boot up time, will give you the option to start windows directly at the command prompt without any other processes and GUI running, and here you can solve the problems I mentioned above and a myriad of other issues.