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Somehow a file ended up on the personal desktop of my Windows 7 machine that does not actually exist. I recognize the title as part of a Reddit post, but I don't know how it ended up on my desktop. The file is listed when using the dir command, but it has 0 bytes and cannot be renamed or deleted through normal means. I get a "File does not exist" or "Could not find this item" in every method I've tried.

Windows Error Dialog on delete attempt

I have tried everything I can think of.

  • Rebooting my computer and hard shutdown, file is still there when booted back up
  • Deleting/Renaming the file using the standard right click menu
  • Command Prompt to delete/rename the file
  • Administrator command prompt to delete/rename the file
  • Killing explorer.exe in the task menu, then using the administrator command prompt to delete/rename the file
  • Using fsutil file createnew <file> 0 on the same file name, created a second file I could delete but the original is still there.

I am completely out of ideas.

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  • Maybe try booting a live OS such as Ubuntu on CD or USB, then mount the Windows partition and delete that file?
    – fuzzydrawrings
    Commented Apr 6, 2021 at 4:08
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    The filename has probably unprintable (and therefore invisible) chars in it. Try to use wildcards: instead of del name use del *n*a*m*e*. Be carefule though that you don't delete other files!
    – Aganju
    Commented Apr 6, 2021 at 5:05
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    Are you sure it is on YOUR desktop, not the common "All Users"'s desktop, which is shown superimposed with your own? i.e. look in "c:\Users\All Users\Desktop" in addition to your own "C:\Users\yourname\Desktop" . I don't think this is your problem, but it's worth checking out.
    – PcMan
    Commented Apr 6, 2021 at 11:29

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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start, find cmd, open del "%userprofile%\desktop\FirstFewLetters*.*" /f ?

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