Moved Desktop by accident

While backing up My Documents to a portable drive on my laptop I inadvertantly moved Desktop instead of copying. Next time I booted up I got error " E:\New Folder\Desktop refers to a location that is not available…." Hooked E: drive back up and copied the files back to the C: drive. Re-booted without E: drive and keep getting the same error. If I boot with the E: drive attached everything appears fine, however Desktop is running from this drive. Tried moving shortcuts etc. from E: to C: but this also doesn't work. It appears the OS looks for Desktop on the E: drive first and if it doesn't find it there it looks no further. How can I get Desktop back to the C: drive where it belongs? Any help would be appreciated…..thanks

Platform: Windows XP SP2 Home Edition Service Pack 2 (Build 2600)
MSIE: Internet Explorer (7.00.6000.16762)

Hello and welcome to WTT.. Its interesting you were able to somehow do this "easily." Are you sure it is Desktop that is missing and not "My Documents?" My Documents are easily moved by right-clicking it and selecting properties.

The settings you are looking for are stored in the registry.

This Article gives you relevant information about your problem.

It will require the use of regedit and any time you use regedit you must be careful as serious problems can occur if a mistake is made. Its my suggestion that you create a system restore point before making any changes in the registry so that you can go back if you need to. You can also right-click the registry keys and export them to files so they can be loaded back in quickly if you make a mistake. For more information look here: How to back up and restore the registry in Windows

I'm concerned that you changed the location of your %userprofile% variable some how. I would make sure that %userprofile% does point to the right location before making any changes in the registry. Click start -> run -> type 'cmd' and press ENTER. At the command prompt type 'echo %userprofile%' and press ENTER. It should say something like C:\documents and settings\[yourusername]. If it is correct, then check the registry settings in the above article. Otherwise, let me know.

Thanks for the reply…….. Desktop was a sub-folder within My Documents and it moved when I right clicked. I should add that all other files from My Documents restored properly, the only one that is affected is Desktop. The article you refered me to gives me hope for a resolution however it applies to Windows 2000, I'm running XP Home Edition. I'm good at following step by step instructions but am not comfortable enough to try and discern between the two systems. Can you provide guidance specific to XP? The %userprofile% is correct……. Platform: Windows XP SP2 Home Edition Service Pack 2 (Build 2600) MSIE: Internet Explorer (7.00.6000.16762)

Ok.. I think there may be some confusion here. You are saying the desktop folder was a sub-folder located in My Documents. Lets start by trying to make sure we are clear and talking about the same thing. Your "Desktop" folder contains all the icons located on your desktop and everything you save on the desktop. This folder usually resides under C:\documents and settings\[username]\Desktop. The My Documents folder usually resides under C:\Documents and settings\[Username]\My Documents. As you can see the Desktop folder is not, by default, a sub-folder of My Documents. So, is it possible that you just have created another folder in My Documents called Desktop, and it isn't the same Desktop I thought you were talking about? And now, you have a shortcut on your Desktop that points to the "Desktop" folder you created and it is invalid wihen you click it? Does the error about a invliad reference occur right at startup, or after you cllick on something? I have to be sure we are talking about the right things here to get you the right solution and sometimes terminology can get confusing. As far as the instructions on the article, yes it refers to Windows 2000, but XP and 2000 are nearly identical in regards to these things. The instructions should work just the same for XP.

Sorry for the confusion, I'm definitely illiterate when it comes to these machines. I work in construction and can build bridges but can't make sense when trying to communicate in this enviorment. Please bear with me. Truth of the matter is, this is my daughters laptop that was freezing/hanging up and I told her I would try and clean it up. So far I have found and removed 57 trojans and a virus called RAIDYS, discovered she never updated windows or Norton, never defragged the C: drive, was not able to restore to an earlier restore point (had to reset System Restore) etc etc. On top of all that I screwed up the Desktop. Here's what I did: Set a new restore point Went to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders" (as per your referenced article) Under Desktop found "E:\New Folder\Desktop". Modified the data to read "%USERPROFILE%\Desktop I also modified any other names that referenced "E:\New Folder\ to "%USERPROFILE%…. and set a new restore point. It seems to have resolved the issue. What do you think? Thanks for your help, although the laptop is much cleaner and seems to be running a little faster it still hangs on shutdown( I will start a new thread) Thanks again……….

I think you've done very well for yourself. You changed the necessary registry settings, and all should be well with that.

Malware removal is a very difficult topic. It takes skilled technicians to be sure that the system is truly clean. The people in this forum will not be willing to help you if we are not sure that your system is free of malware. Please read here for instructions and create a new thread here to make sure the system is truly clean of malware.

If the malware experts determine your system is clean from malware, then come back here and post a new thread about your system not shutting down properly.

Good luck.