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Problem with ShowDesktop Shortcut

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I have a problem with the Show Desktop icon on the QuickLaunch toolbar. The problem cannot be fixed by any of the methods I’ve seen in TechRepublic or MS’s website. I have followed their methods to recreate the file and place it in the correct location. It is named correctly. I’ve even tried a command I’ve seen that is typed in the run command which was supposed to recreate the show desktop icon. None of this works. There is a showdesktop icon which is on the QuickLaunch toolbar, but it does not look like it should. When I click on the icon, I get a message saying that the system doesn’t have a program to open it and it gives me an option of trying to find the program myself or having XP search online for the program. I know that the proper file is there and in the correct location, but it is not working properly. Do you have any ideas on how to fix this problem or what might be causing it? Every site I’ve visited trying to find out how to fix this problem describes how to recreate the file which has not solved my problem.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

April

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Reply To: Problem with ShowDesktop Shortcut

In reply to Problem with ShowDesktop Shortcut

This is a bit of a long shot, crystal ball kinda thing. You probably have either, ScanSoft PhotoSoap2 or ScoreMaker Multimedia Show installed. In that case only uninstalling the 3rd party software will fix it.

If not, go to Windows Explorer, Tools, Folder Options, File Types and see if the SCF extension is listed under Registered File Types. If it is, delete it and run thru’ one of the other processes to re-make the ShowDesktop.scf command. You may then need to go back into File Typeas and associate SCF to open with explorer.exe

Reply To: Problem with ShowDesktop Shortcut

In reply to Problem with ShowDesktop Shortcut

I searched the file types for SCF and it was not there. There is an icon which looks like the show desktop icon, but the file type extension is called “DESKLINK” and the file type is “DESKLINK File”. I’ve never heard of this file type but it caught my eye because the icon selected to display with the DESKLINK file type is the same icon used for the show desktop icon.

Since I don’t have the SCF file type registered, that seems to be the problem. I tried creating a new file type for SCF and associated it with IE, but that does not work either. It did, however, solve the problem of the system searching for a program to open the file type with, but the shortcut to the desktop still does not work.

The keyboard shortcut does work (Windows key + D).

Any ideas on where I can search for an answer to this problem?

Thank you,

April

Reply To: Problem with ShowDesktop Shortcut

In reply to Problem with ShowDesktop Shortcut

Another workaround is Windows key + m (minimise all windows)

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