On my desktop, in the top left of center a little, I have two items
that look to be grey'ed-out icons. The labels underneath the icons
are 'Reply' and 'Ctrl+R. Double clicking on them does nothing.
Right clicking on them produces the same window that I get when I
right click an unused area of the desktop. So I guess they are not
icons. It's almost as if they are burned into the screen, but I sure
hope not. If I open a full-screen window which covers that area of
the screen, they show through that window.

Am I in deep S?
-GECKO

"gecko" <alpha@olympus.net> wrote in message news:vr2s74pj6h016f8bglo5v3bm33f7jgusvk@4ax.com...

> On my desktop, in the top left of center a little, I have two items
> that look to be grey'ed-out icons. The labels underneath the icons
> are 'Reply' and 'Ctrl+R. Double clicking on them does nothing.
> Right clicking on them produces the same window that I get when I
> right click an unused area of the desktop. So I guess they are not
> icons. It's almost as if they are burned into the screen, but I sure
> hope not. If I open a full-screen window which covers that area of
> the screen, they show through that window.
>
> Am I in deep S?
> -GECKO


They may be hidden files.
Open MyComputer or Explorer.
On the Menu bar click Tools > Folder Options.
Click the View tab.
Select:
"Display the contents of system folders".
"Show hidden files and folders".

Deselect:
"Hide extensions for known file types".
"Hide protected operating system files".

Apply > Ok out.
Try to delete the files.
If all goes well, go back and undo the changes you made in Tools > Folder Options.

If no joy:
Right click on the desktop.
Click Properties in the popup menu.
Click the "Desktop" tab > "Customize desktop" button > "Clean desktop now" button.
When completed close out back to the desktop.

If still no joy:
Try booting to Safe Mode to see if they will delete if they're present.

If still a no go:
Open a cmd prompt and set the path to:
c:\documents and settings\your username folder\desktop

If it is at c:\documents and settings\your username folder, type the below at the prompt and press Enter.
cd ^ desktop **Note: the ^ signifies a single space, do not type in the ^.
dir

If the icons are listed type in and press Enter:
del ^ icon.ext **Note: change icon.ext to the actual name and extension of the icon.

If they won't delete, try removing the attributes if set. Type and press Enter:
attrib ^ -r ^ -h ^ -s ^ icon.exe

After removing any attributes, try to delete them as stated above.

--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Windows Desktop User Experience }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://dts-l.com/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

"gecko" <alpha@olympus.net> wrote in message
news:vr2s74pj6h016f8bglo5v3bm33f7jgusvk@4ax.com...
> On my desktop, in the top left of center a little, I have two items
> that look to be grey'ed-out icons. The labels underneath the icons
> are 'Reply' and 'Ctrl+R. Double clicking on them does nothing.
> Right clicking on them produces the same window that I get when I
> right click an unused area of the desktop. So I guess they are not
> icons. It's almost as if they are burned into the screen, but I sure
> hope not. If I open a full-screen window which covers that area of
> the screen, they show through that window.
>

It is possible that a comedian has been at work. It was a popular activity
when Windows first appeared, to copy someone's desktop to a bitmap file and
then mount it as their wallpaper. You could click on the 'icons' all day
and nothing would happen, because they weren't actually icons.