Windows 10: Search returns a shortcut that has no location, not in recent items folder

Hi, I did a search of my C drive, and it returned an entry with a name of course, but a blank location and folder. Hmmm.


On right clicking it and checking properties, it says it is an "Internet shortcut". The only other information on the properties window is an "Internet location", but that is actually a regular folder path, like a regular desktop shortcut, to a file long deleted and no longer on my computer.


When I click the file, in the search window, it says cannot find the file, since it is a shortcut to a deleted file.


But where is this shortcut stored? I have cleared my Recent items folder. And just for luck I cleared all bookmarks and cache in Edge. I even searched my registry, and it is not stored there. It is stored somewhere on my computer, since it is being returned by search, but I cannot for the life of me figure out where.


Any ideas?

:)

 

"Recent Items" list vs Opening a folder for Recent Items


Hello all... I am not understanding how MS elected removed the list of recent files and replaced it with opening a folder to see the recent files. That is now a 2 step process because you have to close the folder. I used the "recent items" a lot and I miss it - I'm sure others do ass well.
The solutions offered here only are partial, they only add the link to the start menu / jump lists, but those still open an actual folder which then has to be closed. If you open multiple files, then you have to close multiple folders. Odd...
I'm not a programmer - but I'm thinking (hoping!) that someone around here may be knowledgeable enough to find a way to return the actual "Recent Items" list, without opening a folder.
I'm thinking I may not be alone on this one...
Thank you!!

 

Question: Windows 10 search returning internet shortcuts as "History Items" - malware?

Hello:

When searching for a file in File Explorer, at the bottom of the search returns list are items marked with a "globe" graphic. Unlike all of the other items returned by the search, they do not have any Type or Date information. Example: if I'm searching
for a recently used file, I will get an item at the bottom of the search list with the globe icon and the name of the file.

When I right-click on the item and select "Properties", the dialogue box lists the Type as Internet Shortcut , with a local Internet Address. (example: file:///D:/OneDrive/filename.xlsx)

When I right-click on the item and select "Delete" I get a dialogue box that says WARNING - Are you sure you want to delete History Item: <filename>?

This does not seem to be normal behavior and I'm not seeing it on my other Windows 10 machine with search results. Can anyone please advise me if these "History Items" are system-generated by Windows 10 and where? As the shortcut is pointing to a local
file address it seems concerning.

Thanks!

 

Question: Windows 10 search returning internet shortcuts as "History Items" - malware?

After investigating further it seems that disabling the Start menu history features solves this problem.

Going to Start > Settings > and then searching for "Start settings" in the search box at the top leads to a control panel where I can disable multiple "recently opened" features.

As a result, Windows no longer seems to be creating strange Internet Shortcuts for recently opened files that show up in a File Explorer search. It also stops creating items in the hidden Users > (username) > Recent folder.

When I called the Windows support line to ask about the shortcut behavior, the person I spoke to consulted his "support" and then suggested that I had a trojan horse virus. I completely wiped my machine and rebuilt the system, only to get the same behavior.
Only after looking further at every setting, step-by-step, did I figure this out. Giant waste of time.

Microsoft: Creating property-less Internet Shortcuts with a local URL as "History Items" - with no published directory location - looks like a malware behavior. Even your own support staff thought so! Please stop doing weird stuff
like this. A history should be saved to one text file that can be cleared, full stop.