StupidFile! – Cannot Delete File On Desktop

by Eric Bright

Updated on February 12, 2019

Objective: removing an apparently irremovable file or folder.

Affected OS: Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, and newer versions

Symptoms:

You have a FOLDER on your desktop with a FILE in it, which you cannot delete.

You’re given this message:

“Cannot read from the source file or disk.”

Possible “solutions” that might not work:

  • You tried to find how to delete it; you googled it, read all newsgroups, posts in some professional forums, asked your friends, downloaded
    IObit Unlocker (and an article about it), EMCO MoveOnBoot, LockHunter, CopyLock, KillBox, Delete Doctor, Deleting Invalid Data Files [see the end of this page for more information on this program; this program is more than what you may guess], DeleteFXPFiles, and Unlocker (it has an x64 version too and a Win7-x64 works only with the x64 version of Unlocker), installed, and performed what they suggested; and finally frustrated by failure.
  • You downloaded Process Explorer and examined every single process running in memory to find a sign of a program that may be using _something_ in that folder. You closed all programs, every resident applications, and all running processes that can be closed. You also closed even some of Windows process and stopped as many services as possible; no sign of any file handle to anything related to that folder… result: negative.
  • You have uninstalled many programs that you suspect they may cause the problem;… negative.
  • You booted up in Safe Mode, tried to EndTask explorer.exe while doing some hacks in cmd prompt like deleting the folder and…
  • You read “How to Delete a Locked Files,” “How to delete a file when…,” and “How to delete locked files on Windows 10” article;… negative.
  • You tried to do “Open with…” then created a file with the same name, saved over the existing one… with no luck.
  • You have no Spyware, no virus and nothing suspicious at all.
  • You did chkdsk c: /f, RegSeeker, NortonDiskDoctor, Regedit (see also this), and lots of command line instructions that you read in forums;… negative (in regedit, you cannot even see any entry with the same name as that stupid file in your Windows registry.) (more about chkdsk.)
  • You have tried ShellExtensionsView (or its LiberKey portable version) to disable the suspected PGP context-menu plug-in, which sometimes causes some problems; … negative.
  • In the end, before installing a fresh damn Windows, why don’t you try this one:

Last resort:

At a cmd prompt type the following:

RD /S /Q [drive:] path

Example:

[on Windows XP]

C:\Documents and Settings[your log-in name]\Desktop\>RD /S /Q foldername

[on Windows 7]

C:\Users[your log-in name]\Desktop\>RD /S /Q foldername

Another example: assume I have such a bad folder on my desktop; its name is StupidFolder, and there is a file inside it, named BS. with a zero length and no other retrievable properties, or perhaps it has a creation date; assume that my log-in name is eric and we are on a Win 10 system. Now:

  • Run -> cmd.exe
  • cd c:\Users\eric\Desktop\
  • rd /s /q stupidfolder

Caution:
Be very careful with what you are doing, otherwise, you may lose everything on your desktop. The path of the command must be correct. Please double-check the spelling before pressing the [Enter] button. If you are not sure about what is going to happen or if you don’t know whether the path of the StupidFolder is correct, DO NOT DO WHAT I SAID. If you lose your valuable data, nobody, including me, would be responsible, but you yourself.

A little background about RD command

It goes back to the era of MS-DOS (see also Basic DOS commands on Sophos). At that time, let say DOS 6.3, you could MakeDirectory(s) with this command:

c:\>md my-letters

It was also easy to RemoveDirectory(s) with the following command:

c:\>rd my-letters

However, the directory that you had attempted to remove had to be “empty,” otherwise, you could not remove it. You also “could not delete” a directory with the following command:

c:\>del my-letters

because the delete command could work only on “files” not “folders.” Then, when your folder was not empty, you first had to go inside that folder, delete everything, come out of the folder, and finally remove it. Still, if there were “many” folders inside one another residing in the main folder that you wanted to remove, you had faced a nightmare.

Luckily, there was a solution to that: deltree. It was not a native command of command.com (command.com was a kind of the kernel of the operating system). It was an external file that you could obtain from elsewhere and use it for that purpose. Then your computer could automatically go to the deepest directory, delete everything in it by this command:

[drive:]\path>del .

(without asking permission from the user except once at the start time) and remove every directory that may be there by an rd command, come up by one sub-directory and repeat these steps again up to the first directory.

When Windows came to the scene, things got changed; directories turned to folders, and rd (remove directory) and del (delete or erase) and deltree merged down to one command: delete. Therefore, you became able to delete a directory, read a “folder” now, regardless of if it has any sub-directory(s) or files inside, and there was no difference between a folder and a file for the purpose of deleting anymore; you could delete a folder as well as a file, a task that was two different tasks in MS-DOS time.

Since the emergence of Win 2000, the external command of deltree went inside the RemoveDirectory command as its switch or parameter, named /s. Then we have had this command:

rd /s [drive:]path

that does this:

deltree [drive:]path

It “removes all directories and files in the specified directory in addition to the directory itself. Used to remove a directory tree,” its help says.

Notice:

  • RD and RMDIR are identical commands
  • You can also use it this way if you don’t like working directly with cmd.exe:

Start, Run…
cmd /C RD /S /Q C:\Users\eric\Desktop\StupidFile

but, replace the username and StupidFile with your own stuff. So the general command would be:

cmd /c rd /s /q [drive:]path

  • Generally speaking, no file in the destination path must be currently in use, which means if the path is not empty, no program must be using any file(s) from inside of it. That is why we say, ‘close all applications; even go to task manager and close every program that you can (not the windows itself)’
  • If you considered the above-mentioned item, it would be much better to even End Process Tree of explorer.exe from your Task Manager; while in Task Manager, go to the tab that is called “Processes, then right-click on explorer.exe, then choose End Process Tree. Doing this, you make sure that at least there is no open file handle from explorer.exe to anything inside the StupidFile. When you finished, you can bring your explorer (and your desktop) back by ‘File -> New Task (Run)… -> explorer (and [Enter], of course!)

Received comments – Adaptations, Hints, and Tricks

I received great comments full of love. I also love you all, my friends. In some of the received e-mails, I got some variations of the rd method that I would be honoured to share with you.

An adaptation by Uhl Albert:

I had tried a bunch of solutions from your page (and elsewhere) but none of them worked. This is what finally did it for me:

1. Log into Windows as another user [must be a user with all administrative privilege]
2. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to: c:\Users\UserName <–user name with the bad files
3. Go to Tools Folder Options and click the View tab. Make sure all settings that hide files are turned off. You want to make sure all files are visible before the next step
4. Move all the files in the Desktop folder to another location (well all except the problem files. If those could be moved you wouldn’t be in this predicament!)
5. Open a command prompt and navigate to the above location
6. Enter this command which deletes the Desktop folder and its contents: RD /S Desktop
7. Create a new Desktop folder
8. Move everything back
9. Log off, then log in again

My complementary notes on the adaptation:

When you are using this method, you should have Administration privilege. Otherwise, you would never be allowed to delete the actual Desktop folder of any user in any circumstance.

The problem of more-than-8-charts-long names: Noticed by Nicolas Huguenin

… the folder I wanted to delete had a very long name (two times wrapped in the CMD) so I wasn’t able to delete it with its long name using the rd command. But using first a dir /x to get the 8-chars name of the folder, I could finally remove it with the rd /s/q.
You may want to add that trick to your otherwise great tutorial, as many of the “young” users might not even know that one day (not so far ago) all names were 8-chars max ;)

My complementary notes on the trick: What does dir /x mean?

Well, it is a wise move. Because there are always some instances of horribly-long file-names with lots of symbols and spaces in them. This would make applying rd impossible for folders with space in their names. This makes applying many other MD-DOS commands impossible too.

Example:

  1. I created a folder on my desktop called ‘Stupid Test’. Note that there is a space between Stupid and Test
  2. Now I want to remove this folder with rd command. Then I write:

C:...\Desktop>rd Stupid Test

And I receive the following messages (one message, two times):

The system cannot find the file specified.

The system cannot find the file specified.

What is the problem? The ‘Stupid Test’ folder is there. Then why the rd command cannot find it? The problem is that the rd command interpreter, like many other MS-DOS commands, cannot understand the space in the name of a file or a folder. It looks for a folder with the name of ‘Stupid’ and a folder with the name of ‘Test’, but does not look for a folder with the name of ‘Stupid Test’. Then it says, ‘the system cannot find the file specified’ two times, once for each part of the name. This behaviour is ridiculous, isn’t it?! Yes, it is, I believe, and so did guys in Microsoft.

Years ago, names of folders couldn’t be longer than 8 characters, because of some profound restrictions in the available ‘file management’ system, and names also couldn’t bear any space in them. They also used to be started with a letter, not a number. We also couldn’t have some symbols in the name of a file or a folder. It sounds awfully restrictive. Then Microsoft changed everything and removed this absurd limitation in its later operating systems, i.e. in its file management system.

However, for the sake of some backward compatibilities, Microsoft decided not to set MD-DOS commands totally apart. So, This problem is inherited from MS-DOS to its descendants. Today, still some of the MS-DOS commands in Windows family face the same difficulty that their predecessor had faced. They cannot understand longer than 8-charts names, nor can they understand folder names containing any space.

What is the solution?

Microsoft guys have provided us with a tool to tackle such a complication. The solution is using dir /x.

The purpose of using dir /x is to create 8-charts long MS-DOS compatible file and folder names that are placed in the current folder. If the desktop is your current folder in DOS prompt, then it means dir /x gives 8-charts long names of all files and folders in your Desktop. Then we can use their 8-charts equivalents with all spaces eliminated and long names shortened up to 8 characters. For instance, a name like:

Test 123456789

would be contracted to: ‘TEST12~1’, or a name like: ‘123456789 123456789 123456789’ would be contracted to :

123456~1’. By doing this, we have 8-charts long names without space in them that can be understood by many MD-DOS commands in Windows family, let say in Win XP.

Now, let’s go back to our ‘Stupid Test’. Assume you are in your Desktop (that means your current folder is C:…\Desktop):

C:...\Desktop>

  1. To see what exactly dir /x does, type ‘dir’. You’ll see a list of the names of all files and folders on your desktop, and you’ll see our ‘Stupid Test’ folder there as well
  2. Now, type: C:\...\Desktop>dir /x. You’ll see, again, a list of the names of all files and folders on your desktop, but all longer-than-8-charts names are also given their 8-charts long equivalents this time. So you’ll see that our ‘Stupid Test’ folder has the 8-charts name of ‘STUPID~1
  3. Again, try the rd command, but this time give the contracted name:

C:...\Desktop>rd stupid~1

(the command is not case-sensitive!)

Voila!

Gratefully, you can get a software named Delinv File. It is also created to delete non-deletable files and folders that show the same symptoms. The author of this program appears to have the longer-than-8-charts-in-name problem in mind. However, you are advised to be careful when you are using this program, and any other program with the same forceful functions, since you may mistakenly delete a wrong file or folder (your whole Desktop, for example). In many cases, once a higher order change is finalized, it would be almost irreversible (at least for novice computer users).

I got an e-mail from the creator of Delinv File, Jim Lawler, in which he explains how the problem with accidental deletion of stuff is partially dealt with in the latest version of the software. Jim has added still another level of confirmation when a folder is selected to make it even harder for one to accidentally delete things. Though the software recently got commercialized, the good news is that the commercial version still contains perfectly-working functions of the original non-commercial version for free. That is really kind of Jim; thank you Jim!

My special thanks go to Uhl Albert and Nicolas Huguenin for sharing their experiences with you and I. I am also thankful for Jim Lawler’s informative e-mail (he is the programmer of Delinv File). He informed me of the latest changes in his useful software, and he gave me some feedback on this writing too.


(last update – February 12, 2019. Changelog: updated broken links.)

(16th update – July 07, 2018. Changelog: updated broken links, corrected typos, I know. Typos never die. ?)

(15th update – January 30, 2018. Changelog: updated broken links, updated for Windows 10, several formatting and typographical improvements)

(14th update – November 11, 2014. Changelog: corrected typos and mechanical errors)

(13th update – March 11, 2014)

(12th update – June 07, 2012. Changelog: updated the external links; added new links; added new applications; minor error corrections; minor extra clarifications; minor textual adjustments)

(11th update – August 25, 2011)

(10th update – January 02, 2010)

(9th update – March 26, 2009)

(8th update – January 23, 2009)

(7th update – October 22, 2008)

(6th update – August 19, 2008)

(5th update – March 26, 2007)

(4th update – March 07, 2007)

(3rd update – December 21, 2006)

(2nd update – February 20, 2006)

(1st update – November 02, 2005)


125 thoughts on “StupidFile! – Cannot Delete File On Desktop”

  1. Thank you Eric. I installed unlocker but it wasn’t able to delete, rename or move the corrupt C:windows\SYSTEM32\RICHED32.DLL file (I tried in both regular and Safe Mode.) The error message that I am getting is “Cannot rename RICHED32: Data Error (cyclic redundancy check) or “Cannot delete RICHED32: Data Error (cyclic redundancy check).
    I need some more powerful tool.
    Thanks in advance.

  2. I have a faulty C:windows\SYSTEM32\RICHED32.DLL file that I cannot delete, rename or overwrite even in Safe Mode. (I am using WIndows XP). Any suggestions are appreciated.

  3. Thanks man! I tried everything but because it was a file with a LONG name with lots of spaces, I couldn’t do it via the cmd line. I didn’t scroll down far enough to see how I could get the 8 digit file name, but I did use the del *.* command. I first moved everything I wanted to keep into a new folder under My Docs and later moved it back.

    Thanks man!

  4. A easier way to do this… open with a text editor put some text in the file as to create file size. Delete. Viola.

  5. Thank YOU! I found your Jan 24 ’09 notation about checking disks – I have been struggling to get rid of these errant files and folders; appearing like hieroglyphics, and unable to reproduce the names in CMD. While they read as \Empty\, I was not confident they may not be malware, since they had appeared overnite, as it were, in an otherwise valid folder.

    I had previously tried many suggestions from other sites, downloaded Unlocker, etc, to no avail.

    This was the first I have seen this (simple!) suggestion. It appears to have cleaned all the ugly files and I may rest easier now! Blessings!

  6. Hi Eric,
    Thanks. I’m much appreciate your help and advise.
    I will come back to provide an update or share the solution if I manage to find a solution.
    Worst case if no solution, I will need to format the GPS drive.
    Once again, thanks a lot for your help.

    Regards
    Derrick

  7. Hi Eric,

    Thanks.
    I have performed the rd command within the logs folder as well as outside the Logs folder including in c:\ drive. but none will help.
    Chkdsk shows no errors. Any other PC utilities software that will help in this case? such as Norton Utilities?

    Regards
    Derrick

    1. Hi Derrick,

      Since I don’t have the device before me, I cannot tell you what exactly is wrong with it. What I am saying here is my best guess. I don’t know of any program that may remedy this condition. You need to hack into the File Allocation Table manually, and that is not something that we can do like this. There are programs that show you the segments of a memory that store the addresses of each directory and file and some programs even allow you to change them; but, I don’t know of any quick fix that can help doing so hassle free.

      To get some idea of the available solutions, you can google Security Live CD Distro. You will find list of Linux LiveCDs that can help you do very geeky stuff should you choose to do so (at your own risk of course).

      Regards,
      Eric

  8. Hi Eric,

    Yes, and it will give me “\Logs\â™ _____~1 – The filename, The directory name or the volumn label syntax is incorrect”.
    By the way, each time I reboot my PC, the N drive will automatic disconnect, and I have to reconnect when windows xp startup, will that affect those software such as unlocker when I set to remove from on next reboot?
    I do not want to come to the last stage whereas to reformat the Garmin drive as I do not know will that affect the performance of the GPS.
    Thanks for you time.

    1. Hi Derrick,

      You probably don’t need to use unlocker anyway, because the symptoms do not suggest any operating system involvement in the problem of removing the folder. Does that drive-N-dismounting effect how unlocker works? Definitely.

      Now I have a question for you. Do you perform the rd command from withing the ‘Log’ folder or from withing the ‘Garmin’ folder? because that makes a big difference. If your answer is yes, then the next thing I recommend to you to do is to do a chkdsk N: /f and the command line and let the operatin system try to fix the directory problem, and only after doing that, re-try to do rd /S Log from within ‘Garmin’ folder.

      When you did so, please let me know of the results.

      Regards,
      Eric

  9. Hi Eric,

    Thanks for your fast response.
    I have tried the command you have provided before, but no hope.
    It will give me “The system cannot find the file specified”
    I have used del ., and enter “yes” when prompted “are your sure?”. no error, but just that the â™ _____~1 still there.
    I even tried to remove the logs directory, but it give me the directory is not empty”
    Thanks.

    1. Have you also tried the following?

      N:\Garmin>rd /S log

      There is a space between ‘rd’ and ‘/S’ by the way; and the command in not case sensitive.

    1. Hi Derrick,

      At a command prompt do the following (I assume that you start from drive N, that is N:\>)

      N:\>CD Garmin\Logs (then press Enter)
      N:\Garmin\Logs>

      Now that you are inside the sub-folder “Logs”, copy the following line:

      â™ _____~1

      Then go back to the command line, and type rd (like the following):

      N:\Garmin\Logs>rd

      and leave one apace after the ‘rd’ command. Then right-click on the area after the space and ‘paste’ the thing you copied from here. You shall see the following by now:

      N:\Garmin\Logs>rd â™ _____~1

      Now, hit the Enter botton and let me know what happens.

      Good luck!

  10. Hi Eric Bright,

    I were facing the same problem with \Cannot read from the source file or disk\ or when I try to rename it, it will give \cannot rename:- The filename, directory name or volumn label syntac is incorrect\
    I have also tried all kinds of software mentioned in your blog as well as from the internet, but none help.
    It would be great if you could help me up.
    ok, I have a GPS N: drive when connected to my PC.
    Under the subfolder named Logs, I have a directory \- …\ which I intent to delete it. So tried in windows, can’t del, can’t rename.
    When i use dir/x in command prompt, I will see \â™ _____~1\ and \â™ ???????????????\.
    None of the dos command will help to remove this unwanted directory, do you have any advice?

  11. Worked great for me. Thanks.

    Incidentally, you don’t need to use dir/x for long directory names. You can just put them in speech marks.

    E.g. rd /s “stupid folder”

  12. Its awesome how so many people like you, are so willing to take the time, to help people like me, self taught/self ignorant computer clutzes, with our generally self-inflicted (at least in my case!) computing problems! PEACE and GODSPEED!! old hippie seattle usa

    ps-nice to see-copy -the-words that i can actually read and copy 1st time! don’t know if its age, vision, or dementia related, but i know i’ve had to try those damn things like fives before i get them right!

  13. Thank you Max.

    Now we know that Win 7 also can be affected by such a problem, which can be solved through booting up in Win XP and performing the rest of the job.

    Cool!

  14. fantastic solution.

    What worked for me…
    – “headachefile.” stuck on win 7 desktop
    – booted win xp from an alternate drive on the pc
    – ran cmd.exe
    – browsed to desktop folder where “headachefile.” was located.
    ( D:\Users\user name\Desktop> )

    – dir/x
    – got the 8 character filename… “HEADAC~2”
    – From the same directory “del HEADAC~2”

    DONE

    might some people find it easier to use a linux boot disk to do this since it seems to be a problem with window’s file manager ? I almost wish i had given that a shot first.

  15. As you already figured it out, the following characters are not allowed to appear in a file or a folder name. They are
    /\:*?”<>|
    And when they appear, it means trouble. Add to this the possibility of your PC using NTFS file system versus your HD using FAT32, the way the operating system deal with the files and folders changes dramatically.

    Now, to make sure that your external HD’s file system is ok and is able to actually see what is in it, you better do the following:

    1- Right-click on your external HD from “My Computer”. Go to Properties > Tools > Error check
    2- Put a check mark next to both items and press OK

    It takes some time to finish, depending on the size of your external HD. When done, open a cmd (command prompt) and brows to the external HD and to the folder in which the StupidFiles are living. I assume that when you attach your External HD it becomes drive H:, the offensive files or folders are at root, and that you know how to open cmd. If not, you can do the following:

    1- go to Run and type
    cmd.exe /k dir H: /x
    and press OK. If the offensive file are not in H:, but let say for example in
    H:\123\Pictures\
    then substitute H: with H:\123\Pictures\
    2- Brows to H: (or H:\123\Pictures\ if your files are in there instead)
    3- Let us assume that the 8-character name of the offensive folder turns out to be BlahBl~!. Then you can do the following:
    RD BlahBl~1 /S /Q
    4- repeat it for the other folders too.

    If the offensive files are in H:\123\Pictures\ (for example), you need to brows to that folder instead, do the dir /x and find out the 8-char names of them and apply the RD command. It will remove all folders and sub-folders inside the current folder (that is H:\123\Pictures\).

    If that could not take care of the files and folders the next step is to do the things in the following comment:

    http://sophy.ca/blog/2007/03/26/stupidfile/#comment-465

    Please let me know if any of these worked.

  16. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I came across this page of your blog. I’ve been having these nasty undeletable files sitting in my external HD since 2 years already and I can’t do a thing about them. I have given up on deleting them after trying everything I could find but with no results.
    I have even tried following everything you mentioned here but nothing worked for me )=
    I noticed that the files I can’t delete are all written in Chinese or Japanese characters. They were OK on my PC until I moved them to my external HD during a backup and suddenly their names changed to ?????s and when I try to delete, I get the invalid syntax error.

    Is there anything I can do about it ? Because I’m seeing all these people who are jumping with joy because they solved the same problem as me but I can’t =(

    Please, and thank you for anyone willing to help.

  17. Right, I also had a file like this. Turns out it _ended_ with a space! Apparently windows XP cannot deal with this. Doing a dir /x in de command prompt revealed the 8.3 short name and del removed the file. Huzzah!

  18. You are a star Eric. I was doing a big backup of a drive to ext hd and it kept sticking at the bad file that windows couldn’t find. Followed your dos solution and it worked fine. I nearly gave up when it didn’t work the first time but it was the long file name and so the x command thing got it in the end. Thanks again.

  19. Thank you for the inquiry you have made.

    I suggest a few things and wait to see if they help. First, you need to do the following of your external drive:

    —–Taken from Microsoft website—–
    Manual steps to run Chkdsk at the command prompt

    1. Click Start, and then Run.
    2. In Open, type cmd, and then press ENTER.
    3. Use one of the following procedures:
    * At the command prompt, type chkdsk volume:/f, and then press ENTER.

    [replace “volume” with the name of your external drive, e.g. D.]
    ———————————-
    Source:
    http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B315265

    Then, when you are done with that task, try the following at the command prompt:
    dir vomule: /x
    (replace “volume” with the name of your external drive, e.g. D.)
    Next, try to delete each file and folder using the command line method.
    Then, let me know if they worked. If not, we try other things.

  20. Hello
    I have these folders and files on my external hard drive which are undeletable. I tryed every step here and other sites with unlocker and
    every free anti virus software and none is detecting it.
    Here is the image that should explain it more.
    http://img167.imageshack.us/my.php?image=problempa1.png
    I believe the names of folders and the files are written on chinese.

  21. oh my god! THANK YOU SO MUCH I DELETED THE INVALID FILE VIA DIVFINST! IT REALLY WORKS! THANK FOR THE INFORMATION! YOUR A GOD GIVEN!

  22. THANKS SOOOOO MUCH!!!! I tried numerous steps to remove a file that somehow showed up on my desktop to no avail. I downloaded ‘unlocker’ and right clicked on the stubborn file and selected unlocker then it gave me a choice what I wanted to do with the file, I chose ‘delete’ and it INSTANTLY DELETED IT! Thanks again so very much!!!!

  23. Hi Andrea,

    I’m not sure if $RECYCLE.BIN is a virus. I’d never heard of any virus with that name. It seems to be a system file. At least, it does not seem to be a virus to me. For more information, please read Recycle Bin from Wikipedia. Specially the part under Physical storage locations.

    Ok! This is what we can do to make sure your system is clean and virus-free.

    1- Go to Filehippo.com and download Avast! Home Edition
    2- Install Avast! Home Edition anti-virus and check your system to make sure you do not have a virus (I guess even if your system has a virus, it has nothing to do with the folder on your desktop that refuses to be deleted. Anyway, by installing Avast! and letting it taking care of any possible virus issue, we will eliminate the virus possibility)

    Now, we need to proceed and work on the StupidFolder. Please follow the following steps then:

    3- Download and install CCleaner from Filehippo.com
    4- When you finished its installation, right-click on your Recycle bin and choose “Open CCleaner…”
    5- On the left pan in CCleaner program, you will see an icon that says “Registry”. Click on that
    6- Now, the right pan changes. On the bottom of the right pan there are two buttons. The left one says “Scan for issues”. Click on that and wait until the program finishes its work
    7- It will find many issues with the registry. Now, the right button is available when the program finished its search through the registry. Click on “Fix selected issues…”
    8- Click on “Yes”
    9- Let the program “Save” the back up information in “My documents”. Click on “Save” then
    10- Click on “Fix all selected issues”
    11- Click on “OK”
    12- Close the application
    13- Remove the folder from your desktop as you learned from the article in our website
    14- Restart your computer
    15- Let me know if you still see the folder coming back

    If that folder came back, then we need to think of something more serious.

    All the best,

    Eric Bright

  24. Eric,

    Thanks for your answer… I keep on looking for the solution to my problem… and I think I got a virus called $RECYCLE.BIN… Eric, any suggestion??? any antivirus program??? any idea???

    Well… thanks and greetings from Mexico.

    Andrea.

  25. Hello Andrea,

    Thank you for visiting my blog. I am looking forward to finding a solution for your problem. I’m going to school now (my classes start in half an hour). I start working on the issue as soon as I am back home.

    Regards

    P.s. thank you for being patient.

  26. Since I really need help… I give the whole explanation of what happened…

    I have a TOSHIBA lap top which uses Vista. I transferred some pics from a cell phone, thus I created on the desktop a folder named PHOTOS P. I transferred and used the pics and then tried to erase it. I could erase the pics but the folder remains on the desktop.

    So, I tried to erase it with antivirus (Macafee, Norton and AVG), and even tried with antispywares… with killbox… using the safe mode…. and nothing. I did what it’s said in here… cd c:\… and so… I took care of the 8 characters… and could erase the folder… but for a while. When I reboot my lap, IT’S THERE… I tried to erase it by creating some other folders in it… and nothing… I put it in another folder… zero…

    So???? Should I reinstall everything???

    Thanks!!!

  27. Hi Eric,

    This is Andrea… I found your webpage really interesting. Congrats.
    I think I have one of those stupid folders on my desktop. I simply can´t erase it, it’s empty and it seems to be a common file.

    In fact, I have done everything, from antivirus programs, antispywares… and nothing… and then I found this page, and did the exact process you describe… and I could erase it… but just for a while… the second time I started it… THE FILE IS STILL THERE… any suggestion???

    Thanks a lot…

  28. “Unlocker” is a great tool. Even better than ForceDel, which was flagged as a “virus” by our VirusScan.

    [Eric: ForceDel is not a virus anyway. I am aware of the VirusTotal’s results on ForceDel. However, that diagnosis is due to the dangerous nature of what ForceDel is able to do. Since it is a command line application, it also can be used, i.e. be incorporated, in a trojan or a malware by an ill-intended individual. This, per se, does not make the application a malware.]

  29. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!

    I had some corrupted rar files leave a big, steamy pile of STUPID UN-DELETABLE folders on my desktop, and you saved me from burning my computer in a barrel of old fried chicken to get it to GO AWAY.

    :D:D:D

  30. This has made me feel so good. :) :)

    I make music with large sample libraries always changing, and I’m always getting folders that wont delete. its not about being nuerotic….its a total pain trying to remove loads of nested files to find the one that one budge……. XP wont skip the file to continue deleting the rest….. I’d tried all the stuff like you have. (i’d stated to loose hope..you know) …10,0000 error mesages 50000 web searches later i find you write up ……

    Delinv File did it :)

    Sincerely thanks dude. check out my music at http://www.myspace.com/RobinDanielmusic

    Love and respect

    R

  31. Found an easy way to delete unremovable desktop icons go to http://www.killbox.net download the program on the screen, use the browse icon find desktop open folder highlight the icon name press ok it will say backup and kill …ok and it’s gone very easy hope it helps….Dougie

    [Note from the author: If you read the first few paragraphs, you will see the name of this program amongst the other names. In my case, that program did not work. It was why I had to figure out what was wrong with the whole thing. –Eric Bright]

  32. Good stuff, worked perfectly, and my folder existed in one of my directories that wasn’t my desktop. Thanks a lot.

  33. Salutations,

    I have resolved the issues, i used knoppix and ubuntu, (short version).

    I created “live CD’s”, changed to root, remounted the drives as rw, (they are ro (read only) in native state), performed rm -R against the directory structure leaving only 1 stubborn file. Backed up 1 directory, performed additional rm -r, descended into the next directory level, failed to remove, however i could then cd into the target directory, do an ls (not ls -altr, for some reason ??? that confused the daemon), locate the offending file, and perform a simple “rm” on the last remaining offensive file. “rm H.Z?P” viola!!

    Please do not put your selves out on this, it would have been nice to have performed an “MS” resolution. But the end result is the main objective.

    tanx;
    pko

  34. salutations to all:

    i have a some what similar issue which seems to be a bit more problematic. files within “documents and settings”, my pictures are corrupt. i have no idea how they became that way. this is my mother-in-laws box, windows XP pro on a fat32 file structure. i have attempted del, renames, moves, attribs’,rd, rmd, moving in windows, moving in dos, unix live disk,( but could not chmod the files to allow access– read only), safe mode attempts, chkdsk, chkdsk on just that directory, no problems with either scan.

    i have “cloned ” the drive, mounted the drive as a second drive and attempted the same processes on this guinea pig, all to apparently noavail. i am open to any suggestions for resolution. and yes, i have always used sfn(short file names) in dos, still program that way in winders..

    i have also downloaded delinv, installed, ran, and failed as well. however, the new version does identify the invalid file and directory names, it does not specifically address what is finds. but it was unable to delete or rename with the program or on reboot.

    the files were already corrupt, but the box crashed, and after correcting the issues, i attempted to convert the file system to ntfs. neither windows nor partition magic could perform the conversion due to these corrupt files, the programs logged to many structure errors and would fail. trying to get my mother-in-law somewhat up to speed for the future.

    tanx;
    pko

  35. Hi,

    If “Steve Vai” is the name of the file or folder you need to delete, it has a space in it. So the command interpreter cannot recognize the file (remember, it’s working like DOS, not like Win XP); hence the message: “The system could not find the file specified”. For it to recognize “Steve Vai” as a file or folder name, you need to use dir /x first to generate short names for your non-8-charts-long, non-MS-DOS-compatible file or folder name (like the one you mentioned). After generating that file name, you need to use that file name in the command to delete the file. Your “Steve Vai” file or folder name then becomes something like the following: STEVEV~1. Then You need to issue del or rd command if it is the name of a file or a folder correspondingly.

    Please let me know if this helped.

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