Strange Vista Desktop shortcut problem

[chimera15]

I have a strange issue with vista ultimate, where I can't drag and drop a new shortcut onto the desktop. In that it won't appear after being dropped. This seems to especially be the case when creating a shortcut to control panel icons.
The new shortcut is created and exists, as I can look in an explorer on the desktop and the icon shows as there, or resort the icons and the icon will appear, or reboot and the icon will appear, but it won't show unless I do one of these things.

I think it may have something to do with that I deleted the desktop.ini hidden icons that appeared when I set the system to show all hidden icons, but not certain. I attempted to recreate the desktop.ini files by looking at another vista machine but obviously I can't normally do the second one because you can't create a file of the same title in the same directory.

Any help would be appreciated, this is annoying as heck!

 

[mdinn]

I have exactly the same problem. Any explanantions?

Mike Dinn -- Canberra

 

[chimera15]

Nope, no solution, and you're like the only person I know of to have a similar problem. This one really has me stumped. Did you delete the desktop.ini files too? What screen resolution are you set in? It may be that it's a result of vista not interpreting the resolution of the desktop correctly and creating the icons off the screen or something, but that might be too easy.

I noticed since I got a 1440x900 screen that I am now able to create shortcuts, but vista throws the icon up to the top of the column that I drag the icon to, not to where I dragged it to to be created. So likely this is the problem.

 

[chimera15]

This problem has reappeared, and is really annoying. I noticed it with another vista machine I had as well, so I know this isn't a unique case, and it's not due to screen resolution issue, although it might be a result of multiple desktop displays? But not sure...any help?

 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

64- or 32-bit Vista?

I've seen some 32-bit control panel icons you can't copy to 64-bit desktop, it just says something like "file not found".

I guess refreshing the desktop doesn't help (there's "Refresh" in desktop's right-click context menu) ?

 

[chimera15]

Thanks, nope, 32 bit vista all around. Refreshing doesn't do anything. I can sort the icons and the missing icons will appear, but refreshing doesn't do anything. It's like it creates them off the screen or something, but there's no way to access them...

In fact, I have a tweak on my system that allows me to save icon positions and restore them.. When I sort the icons by name, and they appear, I can then restore the icon positions, and the new shortcuts will disappear again, so I think that's definitely what's happening, they've been created off screen somewhere instead of where you drag the shortcut to. Maybe there's a registry tweak to define the size of the desktop or something or get vista to create the icon where you drag it to, instead of moving it automatically somewhere...