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My c:\programdata\desktop file has apparently gone missing. I cannot find it and it is driving me CRAZY!!!! How do I reinstall it, without doing a complete recovery? Any ideas. My recycle bin is empty and I know I would not have deleted this file.

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Please move this to superuser. Also, there is no such file as C:\programdata\desktop. It should be in C:\Documents and Settings\[your username]\Desktop for Windows XP. – A. Scagnelli Jul 27 '09 at 12:29
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There is such a folder in Vista/Windows 7: C:\ProgramData – Ivo Flipse♦ Jul 27 '09 at 12:38
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Ahh, I love people who never look past XP :-). Although it makes me wonder what one would want to do in that folder; it's just a link to C:\Users\Public\Desktop here anyway. – Joey Aug 13 '09 at 11:29
If I navigate to C:\ProgramData\Desktop, the folder is empty. Yet if I go to C:\Users\Public\Desktop, there are a number of shortcuts in there. Something is screwy with Vista/7's virtual folders. – Damien May 28 '11 at 1:04

migrated from stackoverflow.com Jul 27 '09 at 12:30

2 Answers

up vote 4 down vote

I think that's a hidden folder.
2 ways of making it visible:

  • Control Panel > Folder Options > View Tab > Select Show hidden folders.
  • Just type in c:\ProgramData\Desktop in the commandbar on top of explorer. This should show the contents of the folder.
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It's indeed a hidden folder, this trick should do it! – Ivo Flipse♦ Jul 27 '09 at 12:39
up vote 1 down vote

and when it's gone.. go to an admin command prompt and type the following.

cd \programdata

mklink /j desktop c:\users\public\desktop

attrib +s +h desktop

this restores it.

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