I have documents and spreadsheets that are saved in desktop folders and are also in p

[johngies]

When I delete the excel or word document from pictures it also deletes it from the desktop folder. What has happened?

[macropod]

Possibly, the file is in the pictures folder and the desktop only has a shortcut to it.

[johngies]

Hi Paul,

Thanks I double checked that. The items on my desktop are the original and where I targeted them to be saved.

The folder hierarchy is
Library
Documents
Music
Pictures (This is where i see every document I am creating PPT or excel)
- My Pictures
- Public pictures
- Shared pictures
-
-
Videos

Does this help?

Thanks again

[macropod]

Your use of the Pictures library to store PowerPoint and Excel files is certainly not standard. In any event, your files won't be saved there, but in either the 'Public Pictures' or 'My Pictures' folder within that library. Ordinarily, they'd default to the 'My Documents' folder, within the Documents library. Even so, I can see no reason why deleting an item from the Pictures library would delete it from the Desktop - which is an entirely different folder. Are you actually saving two copies of each file? If not, they're not being saved to both folders.

[johngies]

Thanks again.

I have been extra vigilant about this since becoming aware of it. When I go to save a file something.docx I make sure i save it to my target destination (say desktop).

I observe that the file now appears in pictures (todays date) and on the desktop. Neither of them are shortcuts.

[macropod]

That suggests there's something faulty with your Windows installation. A single file cannot exist in two locations the way you're describing it. If you save a file to the Desktop, it gets stored in the Desktop folder, not in the Pictures library, and vice-versa. If your display tells you otherwise, it's wrong and either the display or the file system is corrupt.

[johngies]

Thanks again,

Here is an example of what I am seeing.

Recently I had to uninstall and reinstall webroot security. Might that have anything to do with this.

In any event if it is corrupt what would you suggest.. One of those Geeks On site kind of services?

I appreciate your help

[macropod]

I have never used 'Webroot Security', so I can't comment on its behaviour. That said, some anti-virus suites have been known to cause strange system behaviour. the fact you needed to uninstall and reinstall 'Webroot Security' suggests you have had some system issues. If your system is corrupt, you may be able to fix it with a repair install; otherwise you may need to completely reinstall everything from scratch. Make sure you create backups of all your data files first.