Desktop Icons appear on Boot

[jsams]

My father has W98SE machine (Celeron 700, 128MB) that has developed a problem that with each boot, 9 icons appear in the center on the desktop that reference .jpg images. Each icon says for example: "copy of copy of copy… PB3000.jpg". Clicking on one of the icons says the link is bad and will try to browse for the object. Usually the reference is to only two different jpg images, with each copy being a copy of the prior.

I have a gut feeling this happened after a bout of trying to create a shortcut to the folder his Olympus Camera images are stored in.

If you drag all nine to the Trash and delete, they will reappear with the next boot. I have clicked "properties" one of the icons and made sure the path was correct and the .jpg existed, but after closing and trying to click on the icon, it fails again and wants to browse.

I have checked the Startup folder and it is empty. I ran an older version of NAV (5/2002 virus defs) and didn't find anything, but I need to update and run again.

Does anyone have any quick thoughts?

John

 

[Accessdabbler]

You KNOW the jpgs are from bad sites and you got a virus from them, you just don't wanna admit it.

 

[roamer1]

Accessdabbler- LOL!

If they are legit pictures (ones he took):

I wonder if "Users" has been enabled. You can look and see under Users in the control panel. If it pops right up asking to start a user account, stop, cancel, as users has not been enabled.

If so, and desktops have been personalized, there is an "All Users" desktop that will repopulate his desktop with icons that are installed there every time he boots.

I am not on a 98 box right now (someone else please provide PATH if I am wrong), but as I recall it will be under c:\windows\all users\ or c:\windows\profiles\all users\. Dig around in there till you find a folder called Desktop and DEL the jpg's from there.

If they're not legeit pics (snicker..) then the NAV thing is a good move!!

How come they would be "going there" is another thing.

 

[jsams]

Sorry I am late getting back to your replies, thanks to both of you for your comments. Sorry to disappoint but the images in question were taken of Dad's house and his dog. Haven't had a chance to get over to try the ideas offered but at this point its moot as he called and said the icons stopped appearing. He said that last time they appeared they were saying copy 47 of a copy of a copy... and on the next boot they were gone.

Very curious and I am holding my breath at this point to see if the problem is gone or will reappear.

Thanks again for the ideas and will log them for future use if needed.

John