If you go to delete the file or folder, you may receive the following error message:
If you try to delete or rename the item, you may see the following error box:
Cannot delete icons, files or folders
If you too face a similar problem, first, simply restart your computer and see if you are able to delete it. If not, then here are a few things you could try.
- Refresh the desktop and see if you can now delete them. Run Check Disk too.
- Boot in safe mode and try deleting them.
- Go to the desktop folder/s and try deleting from there. The typical path is C:\Users\UserName\Desktop or C:\Users\Public\Desktop.
- Open and elevated command prompt and: Use the del command to delete undeletable files: Use the RMDIR or RD command to delete undeletable folders:
/S : Delete all files and subfolders in addition to the folder itself. Use this to remove an entire folder tree./Q : Quiet – do not display Y/N confirmation
Use freeware Delete Doctor utility to lock and delete the files on reboot. To delete undeletable folders, try Unlocker instead.
If they are leftover icons after un-installing a program, install the program again, delete the desktop icons and then uninstall the program.
Open Regedit and navigate to Double click on NameSpace and check inside each of the GUID folders. If you are able to identify the icon by name, delete it. This is especially useful for deleting some un-deletable system icons. Hope something helps. Read next: Error 0x80070091 The directory is not empty.
