Notepad won't save to desktop

By Howard Davis
in Microsoft (Windows)

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Howard Davis

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Posted

I can no longer see notepad files saved to my desktop, and they may not be saved at all. No file icon appears on the desktop as it used to do.

When I go to the desktop file listings (via my computer>local disk C>documents & settings), the file I attempted to save is not listed there either.

However, when I try to save to the desktop again (via "save as") and the "desktop" window appears with the contents listed, the file name DOES appear there - but I cannot access it.

Strange! Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1060414-notepad-wont-save-to-desktop/
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Ntrstd

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  On 26/02/2012 at 16:10, Howard Davis said:

I can no longer see notepad files saved to my desktop, and they may not be saved at all. No file icon appears on the desktop as it used to do.

When I go to the desktop file listings (via my computer>local disk C>documents & settings), the file I attempted to save is not listed there either.

However, when I try to save to the desktop again (via "save as") and the "desktop" window appears with the contents listed, the file name DOES appear there - but I cannot access it.

Strange! Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Is your hard disk nearly full? Have you run Disk Cleanup and Error-Checking on the disk recently? And rebooted the computer.

What happens if you Right-click on the Desktop and use New-Text Document? Has an updated virus scan been run recently? Presumably you are using the correct version of Notepad for that operating system. Notepad.exe could be corrupted, are you able to remove it and re-install it? What happens if you create another account and try to save files with Notepad?

Community Regular

Billaguana

Posted
Posted

When you are logging in, are you logging in to your account or a temp account. In other words, check to make sure all your stuff is there (pics, docs, etc.). Also, run through CMD and input:


cd %UserProfile%/Desktop
[/CODE]

Then do:

[CODE]
dir /a
[/CODE]

and see if it is listed there

Community Regular

Howard Davis

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Posted
  On 28/02/2012 at 01:06, Ntrstd said:

Is your hard disk nearly full? Have you run Disk Cleanup and Error-Checking on the disk recently? And rebooted the computer.

What happens if you Right-click on the Desktop and use New-Text Document? Has an updated virus scan been run recently? Presumably you are using the correct version of Notepad for that operating system. Notepad.exe could be corrupted, are you able to remove it and re-install it? What happens if you create another account and try to save files with Notepad?

I've cleaned up, virus scanned, defragged, etc. - this is not the problem.

Community Regular

Howard Davis

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  On 28/02/2012 at 16:55, TheReasonIFailed said:

Have you tried doing a search for the file? Maybe you're saving to a different "Desktop" folder.

Thanks for the reply.

I searched, and yes, there is more than one "desktop" folder. There seem to be at least three, one of which has the Notepad files I tried to save but could not see on the desktop. They do have the files/shortcuts that I can see on the desktop.

Can these "desktop" folders be combined, and how? Will this resolve my problem?

Community Regular

Howard Davis

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Thanks again to all for your replies.

I am the only user of this computer, and it is not on a network.

I tried saving a notepad file to the desktop today. I then did a file search, and found it in: C:\data backup\desktop AND C:\documents and settings\my name\recent. I was able to drag and drop the file to the screen desktop.

Once this was done, I tried saving more notepad files - and now they DO appear on the desktop!

Looks like the problem is fixed. Strange things, these computers!

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