Windows 10: The shortcut... which isn't

Since migrating from Win7 to Win10 I've noticed that some of my shortcuts are not working. Instead I get a messsage about "Network Resources". Here's an example of the properties of one of them:





The full target is: "C:\Users\Steve\Documents\Blood Pressure Readings.xlsx"

The error popup is:




... you'll notice that Windows10 doesn't bother to tell us WHAT network resource is unavailable. That would make things too easy!

The location of the shortcut itself is C:\$User\Stuff\Frequently Used Documents

I can't see anything in this setup which requires any network access. If I navigate to the folder containing "C:\Users\Steve\Documents\Blood Pressure Readings.xlsx" and then create a new shortcut to that file, in C:\$User\Stuff\Frequently Used Documents then that works. And I cannot see any difference between the two shortcuts' properties.

However, I can open one of the working shortcuts with my text editor, but I get the network error if I try to open one of the failing shortcuts in my text editor. How odd.
I was going to attach the contents of the two shortcuts, as text files, but since I can't get at the failing shortcuts, there's no point.

:)

 

Quick Tip: Create desktop shortcuts in Windows 10

Though this works, what you see is the Edge logo with the name of the shortcut underneath. You do not see the logo of the web site for which you are creating the shortcut. If you're a visual person, this isn't the ideal solution. I used the instructions
provided by BillynPatPeterson on August 5, 2015 which worked like a charm.

 

Quick Tip: Create desktop shortcuts in Windows 10

Hi, yes that is true with Edge, and thanks for the recommendation using Internet Explorer.

 

Just a thought
In windows 10 and 8.1 ..
My documents folder has changed to Documents

That can be the reason.
Try to Restore all the Libraries and or Try to recreate a new shortcut again.

 

I don't like the sound of "Restore all the Libraries"; I'm trying to change as little as possible in my Windows 10 system until I regain my confidence in it. I don't mind making small changes, whose effects I understand.

In this case, my obvious choice is simply to replace the failing shortcuts with new ones, then to throw the failing shortcuts out. Then to forget all about this episode. Fortunately, forgetting is one skill at which I'm getting very much better at, at my age. *Biggrin

 

Are you sure you don't mean $username? I've just done some extensive searching around and have learned that $user is not a pre-defined Windows environment variable. It's often used in PowerShell, Python, and so forth, but it's not defined by default in Windows. Experiments at the command line also show it's not defined on my machine(s). Do you know how this got there? Very interesting!
--Ed--

 

somehow when a friend of mine wanted to move all his mp3's to a different folder, he used the auto tag "feature" of sorts to tag them back into winamp so that he could play the songs instead of getting error..
also try take ownership \ move it to another folder \ drive and back again.

 

$User - used as the name of a directory - is a throwback to my career in IBM. We were issued with PCs/Laptops loaded with Windows and a pre-configured C:\$User\ directory.

We were encouraged to store all our own data under this $User directory, as that would get automatically backed up, and when we got a system upgrade, it would get migrated.

AFAIK the "$" was there just to make the $User directory float to the top in Explorer.

I doubt that any of this is relevant; I'm just tidying up loose ends.