Hotkey launches Desktop 2

[TimRegester]

I have a friend with a PC that launches a Desktop window whenever a lower case s is typed.

The OS is Windows 98 The hardware is a fujitsu/Siemens Celeron and otherwise works fine.

I assume it is hotkey and certainly acts like one. I cannot find the shortcut this hotkey is related to. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how this can be removed?

 

[TekTippy4U]

What's a "Desktop Window"
Check Control Panel > Accessibility Options
Also see Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs >Windows Setup tab > Accessibility > choose Details and see what portions are installed....
you may just have a desktop shortcut which has the "shortcut" box filled in inappropriately ...and/or "run" box.....right click each desktop shortcut and choose "properties" to view the settings

TT4U

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[TimRegester]

All done. I checked the control panel, registry win.ini system.ini and found jack all.

Pressing s launches an Active Directory folder labelled Desktop.

I checked all the shortcuts I could find that seemed like a good bet but found no errant hotkey combinations present.

There was a background process called hkcmd.exe which from it's name looked like a prime target so I disabled it loading in Msconfig but the issue remained.

This has me flummoxed

 

[TekTippy4U]

see;

http://www.windowsstartup.com/wso/browse.php?l=8&start=25&end=50

TT4U

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[TimRegester]

That looks like the fella but I stopped the process so how comes it still ruddy works!!!!!!

 

[ftechguy]

I had a similar problem with a user's win98 PC--pressing lowercase 'a' would bring up an explorer window showing the system tools folder. I searched the shortcuts and somehow, there was a shortcut in the accessories folder with a hotkey of just the letter 'a' that referred to the system tools folder. I deleted this hotkey and the problem was gone. I don't know how the hotkey got there though, as MS normally requires any hotkey to include Ctrl + Alt. Maybe virus/adware,etc?


Anyway, in your case, I'm still not sure what you mean by a desktop window.

quote: "Pressing s launches an Active Directory folder labelled Desktop."

Do you mean Active Desktop? I never used this feature, but I always thought it was only for webpages (urls) and not local folders on your computer. So is this window actually a user-created folder called Desktop (and not the system's desktop folder that contains all your icons)?? In that case, try searching for shortcuts named Desktop and checking the hotkey (in the properties window for each shortcut). Maybe like in my case, there will be a rogue hotkey that got in somehow.

 

[cdogg]

I'm sure that by saying "Active Directory folder labeled Desktop", he's just referring to a Windows Explorer window browsing the Desktop (which includes My Computer, My Network Places, etc).

~cdogg
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[TimRegester]

Sorry I meant active desktop, instead of the standard win95 type folder it was the "active directory" style folder with the pointless screen hogging preamble etc.

I will follow up the accessories folder lead, I checked this out and will see if this fixes the issue.

I will also be installing Adaware as this seems to fix most of the rogue issues I have seen in the last year.

 

[TekTippy4U]

Check the Quick Launch folder shortcuts too,
C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
and SendTo folder in Windows
as the "Show Desktop" shortcut is a System channel one which displays the "Active Desktop"...look in Display Properties as well (Web tab, etc., as per that link, I gave earlier)

You know "Active Desktop" can be shut off.

just to clarify;
when this happens, do all open windows minimize, so that you are then looking at the "Desktop" with the Icons, and whatever background you may have.
OR
does a New, Explorer Window open up..

btw; Is or was TweakUI ever installed?

TT4U

Notification:
These are just my thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions.
Backup All Important Data/Docs

 

[TimRegester]

Thanks for the excellent advice. I hope to be able to get back to my clients PC today and fix this issue. I will try your suggestions, I know it must be a shortcut somewhere.

I will investigate the powertoys and tweakui as well and install adaware (I noticed some dodgy processes yesterday but they were not the cause of this issue)

I will post back how I get on.

Tim

 

[TimRegester]

Thanks for all the advice, that worked a treat. It was not easy to find mind you, did a find for all shortcuts, returned 220 and it was (as sods law would have it) around the 200th Shortcut.

Note that you cannot just send it to the recycle bin but have to delete it properly as it still stopped the lowercase s from working when the shortcut was in the recycle bin.

Again thanks