I just ran CCleaner and it appears that the shortcuts for apps and programs on my desktop won't work. The icons are there, but nothing happens when I try to open them. I've recreated a few, but I also can't delete the old ones. I would appreciate some help! Thanks!
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I'm running Windows 11 and use Trend Micro, version 17.7.18257. I am not able to right click on any of the broken icons and can't delete them either.
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I don't know just what has happened here, Desktop Icons can get broken for various reasons (including an AV update interfering with them).
First things first, do a 'Restart' of your machine - Not a 'Shutdown' ; a 'Restart' can clear more.
Next if they are still there and still broken there's a few things you can do to fix it here:
If you decide just to recreate the shortcuts then you still have the issue of removing the broken ones.
If the broken icons are still there then Custom Clean can clean up broken Desktop Shortcuts - so it may be worth seeing if it finds them.
If the shortcut is still valid then Custom Clean will leave it alone. (Health Check won't touch even the broken ones).
In CCleaner right-click on 'Desktop Shortcuts' (it doesn't need to be ticked) and 'Analyze'.
If it finds them then you can right-click again and 'Clean' the ones it has found.
(You can see an Ananlze just found 2 for me here. I know what they were, something that I'd removed and hadn't realised the shortcuts had been left behind without any icons).