Stop desktop shortcuts to removed drives disappearing in Windows 7

Question

I like to have desktop icons to various removable drives (USB pen drive, media player, external HDD etc.) for easy access - I've switched off auto-play for removable drives.

However, each time I restart the PC, the shortcuts to drives which aren't currently attached have disappeared.

How can I stop this behaviour?

Update
In the end I used Desk Drive which which makes Windows work like the Mac - removable drive icons appear on the desktop when inserted and disappear when removed. This actually works better than having persistent icons as the icons only appear when the drive is ready to be used.

Answer 1

Very interesting question! This isn't an easy task, pelms. But here is how you do it:

I'd be interested in something simpler, in the way of a nifty little program that allowed me to create persistent device icons on the desktop. I too am interested in this functionality. So I hope someone else comes up with a simpler answer.

The solution for Windows XP involved making changes to the inf files of your removable media drivers and to the registry (under the HKLM tree). It's all on the following link and there are no reasons to doubt it will not work under for Windows 7: Personalized Icons for Devices on Windows XP at the Microsoft Hardware Developer Central.

Not only you can completely personalize your icons, you can also define a NoMediaIcons key so that the icon remains when media is removed. This makes your device icons behave much like the recycler bin, which is very cool.

Since this is a XP "hack" and I haven't tested it under Windows 7 yet to at least tell you if it's safe, please use caution. I suggest you create a restore point before trying it. But as I said, from a quick inspection of the registry I see no reason why it shouldn't work on Seven.

Answer 2

I'd like an answer to this as well, for me the problem is not just removable media but also mapped network drives. I'm going to try putting my shortcuts into a folder on the desktop, but this is a Very annoying change from XP!

Answer 3

It seems this is a 'feature' of the Windows 7 'System Maintenance troubleshooter'.

The System Maintenance troubleshooter performs a weekly maintenance of the operating system. The System Maintenance troubleshooter either fixes problems automatically or reports problems through Action Center. When there are more than four broken shortcuts on the desktop, the System Maintenance troubleshooter automatically removes all broken shortcuts from the desktop

'Broken' shortcuts may be links to non-attached removable drives, or links to network drives - if they're not yet mapped when the program runs.

To avoid this problem, Microsoft advises limiting the number of 'broken' (or breakable) shortcuts on your Desktop to 4 or less, or as a last resort, disabling the System Maintenance troubleshooter'.