More Vista trouble

[ninja9578]

How do I delete a shortcut from the desktop? When I try and delete it Vista tries to delete what the shortcut points to, not the shortcut itself. It doesn't show up when I do a dir in the terminal

[Man of Steel]

Right Click > Delete It won't delete the program, in fact the message that pops up tells you quite specifically that it is only deleting the shortcut. Perhaps you misunderstood the dialog.

[ninja9578]

Nope, the dialogue specifically asked me if I wanted to delete the file that it linked to. C:\Programs\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat Reader.exe

[slayer]

Is it trying to make you uninstall the actual program? Right clicking > Delete should tell you if you want to just delete the shortcut, or uninstall the program... Or atleast that's how it is on XP.

[ClouD]

Both move only the shortcut to the recycle bin, not the file, even though it says 'file'. Stupid Vista? [excuse the change in icon]

[Keresztanya]

It clearly says "Deleting the shortcut does not uninstall the program, only deleting the shortcut". So no, it's not "stupid Vista", you read it incorrectly. The thing was telling you what it was a shortcut to, not what it was going to delete.

[RedfishBluefish]

It clearly says "Deleting the shortcut does not uninstall the program, only deleting the shortcut". So no, it's not "stupid Vista", you read it incorrectly. The thing was telling you what it was a shortcut to, not what it was going to delete. I think the point was that the second dialog clearly appears to be saying it is going to delete the file "Internet Explorer" in complete contrast to the first dialog saying it is just going to delete the shortcut. Stupid Vista shouldn't set up a convention where it says specifically when it is deleting a shortcut, if it is going to violate that convention on some other random shortcut, causing the user to think "WTF, is it trying to delete the file? I just want to get rid of this shortcut".

[ninja9578]

http://img2.imageshack.us/img2/7852/deletefile.jpg This is what I was getting, so even though the dialogue says that it's trying to delete the application itself, it's really only deleting the shortcut? Then why does it ask me for the administrator password? It says the folder is inaccessible because the admin password is needed. You need an admin password to delete a desktop shortcut? Stupid Microsoft.

[The Cusp]

Just go back to XP. It's much less stressful.

[ClouD]

This is what I was getting, so even though the dialogue says that it's trying to delete the application itself, it's really only deleting the shortcut? Then why does it ask me for the administrator password? It says the folder is inaccessible because the admin password is needed. You need an admin password to delete a desktop shortcut? Stupid Microsoft. I need to enter the admin password to 'restore' some shortcuts, others not the case. I'm assuming it's the same with deletion.

[Keresztanya]

Windows has always just deleted the shorcut. The whole point of that dialog is to inform idiots that it's a shortcut to the actual program, because you know there are people out there that think the icon is the whole program. Why do you even bother reading it anyway, it's just asking for a conformation. If you don't understand the way Windows deletes files, or how files work, you shouldn't be bothering with anything but a Mac. A shortcut is just a .lnk file on your desktop, there's no way deleting it can cause the real thing to be deleted.

[Ynot]

epic thread.....

[slayer]

Thank god I have XP...

[Man of Steel]

And I just read an article on how the Mighty Mouse made Mac secure from Windows users, because they'd never be able to figure out how the damn thing works. What Tony said; epic thread.

[RedfishBluefish]

By the way, who the hell thought up the "All Users/Desktop" folder, where icons in there show up on every user's desktop - and it takes administrative privileges for a user to remove them. No, I don't want your crapware on my desktop. No, moving the icons off the edge of the screen isn't a solution... EDIT: oh, maybe that's what you are getting, ninja. The shortcut doesn't appear in terminal because it's actually in "All Users/Desktop" maybe?

[ninja9578]

Windows has always just deleted the shorcut. The whole point of that dialog is to inform idiots that it's a shortcut to the actual program, because you know there are people out there that think the icon is the whole program. Why do you even bother reading it anyway, it's just asking for a conformation. If you don't understand the way Windows deletes files, or how files work, you shouldn't be bothering with anything but a Mac. A shortcut is just a .lnk file on your desktop, there's no way deleting it can cause the real thing to be deleted. Then why did they change it to no longer tell me that it's just the shortcut?

[Keresztanya]

Then why did they change it to no longer tell me that it's just the shortcut? Does it matter? I'm surprised you even read the notifications that Windows pops up. Those are only there for people who don't know how computers work...

[ClouD]

Does it matter? I'm surprised you even read the notifications that Windows pops up. Those are only there for people who don't know how computers work... Computers =/= OS When Windows Vista starts saying 'delete file' (with a description of the file) as opposed to the 'delete shortcut' (with clear explanation that it's not going to delete the file), then it is obviously going to incite some confusion, especially given Vista's reputation.

[Marvo]

Ninja, I believe that Vista doesn't like you messing around with OS applications like IE. The thing is though, that if there is a small bend arrow in the lower right corner of an icon, it's always a shortcut, and deleting a shortcut will never delete anything more than that.

[Keresztanya]

Computers =/= OS When Windows Vista starts saying 'delete file' (with a description of the file) as opposed to the 'delete shortcut' (with clear explanation that it's not going to delete the file), then it is obviously going to incite some confusion, especially given Vista's reputation. I understand that a computer is not an OS. I was saying that the thing is there for people who don't have an understanding of how any OS works, whether it be OS X, XP, or Vista.

[[SomeGuy]]

I understand that a computer is not an OS. I was saying that the thing is there for people who don't have an understanding of how any OS works, whether it be OS X, XP, or Vista. I never read those pop-ups. They're pretty crap explanations too. I think Linux is much easier.

[Marvo]

Reading the pop-up messages that Windows shows is sometimes a good idea.

[[SomeGuy]]

Depends on what you are doing. And the reason I never read them is because I'm never on Windows.

[Marvo]

We are aware that you use Linux.

[[SomeGuy]]

I use Linux, in case you didn't know.