Shortcuts are links to commonly used programs and files that are placed on the desktop by program installations and/or users. Often, program installations place shortcuts on the "All Users" desktop so they are available to every user logging on to the machine. When users create shortcuts for their own use, they are usually placed on their own desktop, available only to to the user that created it. As a result, shortcuts can exist in either “C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop” or “C:\Documents and Settings\username\Desktop” (where username is the login name of the user on the computer). These two locations work together to display the user's desktop. You will need to take this into consideration when creating the element to automate the removal of any shortcut. The file extension of a shortcut is .LNK.
Deleting a shortcut without wildcards: To delete a single shortcut for "Files on D", create a Shortcut element to remove "Files on D" from the appropriate Shortcut Location, as shown in Figure 2 below. Note: To delete a shortcut from "All Users" desktop, change the Shortcut Location to "All Users Desktop".
Figure 2: Deleting one shortcut from Username's desktop
Deleting multiple shortcuts using wildcards: Use the following tips when creating an element to delete multiple shortcuts :
To delete shortcuts for "Files on D" and "Files on E", create a Shortcut element to remove "Files*.LNK" from the appropriate Shortcut Location, as shown in Figure 3 below. Note: To delete a shortcut from "All Users" desktop, change the Shortcut Location to "All Users Desktop".
Figure 3: Deleting shortcuts from Username's desktop
