It is error that occurs when file or folder has invalid name. this is full error message in windows xp that occurs sometimes. sometimes its enought to press F5 (refresh) and the file goes away, but sometimes it gets stuck on desktop or HDD root .. or somewhere else.
* windows 7 gives different error, but method is ever the same to get rid of such annoying file/s
it has happend twice for me. last time was very annoying because the file popped on desktop. ok how it got there ?
i used ''download helper'' (its firefox addon) to download video from youtube, but it kind a glitched or something like that. so it left that temp file (without extension) on my desktop. the file ended with ''!'' sign and usually windows has problems if file has something like this at end of the filename:
. ! ..etc. its not always the case, but it may cause this error. so i was unable to move, delete or rename the file. it also crashed my whole PC when i tried to rename it. first it said cannot rename, but i already delete real file name so it was blank and i couldnt get out of there. it kept hitting me with that error message that cannot rename. so i tried to close explorer.exe with ''process explorer'' but then everything crashed..doh.
then i tought ill google lil bit. well i found nothing useful. only some mumble-blablabla. somebody suggested to do this:
start-run-chkdsk
well i ran it, but it crashed my pc. oviously when it got to this file. it said that removing some file from index, but then it crashed.
Here's how i solved it.
1. File was on my desktop
2. I closed explorer.exe
3. i moved all other shortcuts and files into new folder from desktop folder
4. i renamed the old desktop folder (rename it to whtever you want) using cmd
-run (from process explorer or taskmanager) and then type ''cmd'' and hit enter.
5. so now the file was gone from my desktop when i rebooted pc (well it crashed actually)
-note that windows will automatically make the ''Desktop'' folder if its not there.
6. now i had this ''blah'' folder containing that stupid file.
7. once again it was impossible to delete it, but not impossible to move it around.
8. close explorer.exe again and open cmd
9. browse to the location where this stupid folder is (tht contains this stupid file)
10. use this command:
Code: Select all
move foldernamehere C:/recycler
at least it worked for me...well more or less. after emptying recycler my whole OS crashed AGAIN, but now the file is GONE and pc running just fine :)
NOTE: i also did registry scan and ran ccleaner and hijackthis and cleaned some junk out to make sure that some registry error is not causing it to crash or making it come back..etc.
NOTE2 if file is not located in any of the important folders for operating system, then it is easier. you can simply move the whole folder into recycler using cmd command "move" my problem was that it was in "Desktop" folder, thats why all this hassle, since you cannot move the file itself, but only the containing folder/s.
Those kind of files are really annoying. so if you want to make a ''joke'' to a ''friend'' then learn how to make such files and make like 11 of them on his/her desktop and enjoy the show :)