Hard to create shortcuts in Users\Public\Desktop

Question

Hi all,
I can't find this documented anywhere...
When I browse to %SystemDrive%\Users\Public\Desktop in Windows Explorer, the right-click "Paste shortcut" command generates the following error message:
Windows can't create a shortcut here.
Do you want the shortcut to be placed on the desktop instead?
In addition, the "Create shortcut" menu item is missing when I right-click -> New.
To put shortcuts in that folder like I want, I have to create the shortcuts elsewhere and copy them over, or create the shortcuts programmatically (e.g., WshShell.CreateShortcut).
Can anyone provide any details on this behavior?
Thanks!
Bill

Answer 1

Hi Ronnie,
Thanks for the reply, but I think you're misunderstanding...
It's not a permissions problem -- I'm running an elevated Explorer window. As I said, I can copy shortcut files there (and copy and delete any other files there as well). Also, note that the following script works as well:
var fso = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject");
var wshShell = new ActiveXObject("WScript.shell");
var allUsersDesktop = wshShell.SpecialFolders.Item("AllUsersDesktop");
var shortcutName = "Command Prompt.lnk";
var shortcutPath = fso.BuildPath(allUsersDesktop, shortcutName);
var wshShortcut = wshShell.CreateShortcut(shortcutPath);
wshShortcut.TargetPath = fso.BuildPath(fso.GetSpecialFolder(1), "cmd.exe");
wshShortcut.Save();
The above script (save it in notepad and name 'createCmdShortcut.js') programmatically creates the shortcut without problems (of course, you have to run it from an elevated command prompt window), so as I said, it's not a permissions problem -- if it were a permissions problem, the above script would fail (and it does, if you don't run it elevated).
The problem I'm highlighting is that the "Create shortcut" menu item doesn't work (it generates the "Windows can't create a shortcut here" message), and the right-click -> New -> Shortcut menu item is missing when you target your Windows Explorer window on the Users\Public\Desktop folder. These things work fine when I change my Explorer view to some other folder. I can't find any documented reason for this behavior.
Regards,
Bill