Why can't I CTRL+A then DEL on Desktop to get rid of shortcuts?

[Steven P. Administrators]

 

When you do this and press Del key on your keyboard, it does not delete the files on the desktop. I think it should, like a power user option to bypass the prompt (if there's one) this way it would allow for the CTRL+A > Del option to clear the desktop, but the Recycle Bin (which is not a standard shortcut) does not allow this.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Try right clicking on the desktop and click refresh and see if they disappear. sometimes the explorer shell is in a funky state that so that when you press delete, they do actually delete But they stay on the screen until you refresh.

 

and yes, the select all I don't think will work if the recycle bin is selected as part of the items.

[Steven P. Administrators]

On 10/09/2022 at 18:13, warwagon said:

Try right clicking on the desktop and click refresh and see if they disappear. sometimes the explorer shell is in a funky state that so that when you press delete, they do actually delete But they stay on the screen until you refresh.

They really don't if the Recycle Bin is also selected (Windows 10 21H2).

[+Warwagon MVC]

On 10/09/2022 at 11:16, Steven P. said:

They really don't if the Recycle Bin is also selected (Windows 10 21H2).

Correct.

 

I would just hide the recycle bin so it doesn't get in the way Right click / personalization / themes / Desktop icon settings.

 

 

 

[+Warwagon MVC]

Plus after hiding it on the desktop you can still access it by clicking start and typing "recycle bin" or located in this section

 

You could also keep the recycle bin on the dekstop .. do a CTRL + A and then Control click the recycle bin to just deselect that, then you should be able to delete the rest.

[Fraud OS 11]

Just copy-paste this in a batch/cmd file:

 

Del %userprofile%\Desktop\*.lnk

Del C:\Users\Public\Desktop\*.lnk

 

The shell has Special Folders since Windows 95 which cannot be "deleted" at the same time as other files. Substitute lnk with any other extensions.

 

Otherwise open the "Desktop" via: %userprofile%\desktop and there Ctrl+A, delete will work. Can also place this file at startup to clean the desktop at every login.