Invalid MS-DOS

lx07 · 18 Nov 2015

You need a space between the del and the first % - like in post 17.

Irishman331 · 18 Nov 2015

I am wondering if Meg knows the difference between a command prompt and an Elevated prompt. She said from the beginning that she is not very hip to computer jargon, which to me translates to, not being an experienced user. That much is evident from her lack of knowledge regarding syntax.
I do not say that as a detriment to Meg, only to point out that maybe someone could take it step by step from opening an Elevated Command Prompt, to typing in what needs to be typed in. Ex. Dir[space]/p[space]Windows or something to that effect. What a command looks like in a GUI environment and what it looks like at the actual prompt can be deceiving.
Just a suggestion to get her issue solved.

meg ryan · 18 Nov 2015

You would right computer jargon is beyond me... i did it again with the space and nothing happened just went back to c:\users\home>

Is that not right either?

lx07 · 18 Nov 2015

meg ryan said:

i did it again with the space and nothing happened just went back to c:\users\home>

Is that not right either?

That is right (and good news) - that means it has deleted it. If you check on your desktop it should be gone.

This means you can delete things from the desktop using this method even is the normal way doesn't work. Note this method of cleanup should be one time only. If you save something new to desktop you should be able to delete it as normal.

Other things you want to delete you can repeat the same process just changing the name.

The format is this: note the space after the del and also note the quotes which you should include

Code:

del %userprofile%\desktop\"Whatever the name.xxx"

You need to replace Whatever the name with the file name and the xxx with the file extension.

So for example the previous one on your list on post #15 is this (don't worry about the colors - I'm just trying to make it clearer what goes where - as you saw the command prompt window is black and white)

10-Aug-15 09:36 AM 56,866 11817217_1172013119490763_7311893396328677083_n.jpg

so delete it you would enter this in command prompt:

Code:

del %userprofile%\desktop\"11817217_1172013119490763_7311893396328677083_n.jpg"

Please let me know if this is not clear or if you have any questions.

meg ryan · 18 Nov 2015

You correct ive just deleted the newest file which was one of the command prompt screen grabs however i have no idea what i deleted as no space as opened up on my desktop therefore i imagine it was from a folder.

Is this seriously the only way to get around this? As this is going to take a very long time identifying what i want to delete and then going to a list and trying to get the right one (wish i labellled them better now)

meg ryan · 18 Nov 2015

Also this doesnt help in tiding up the desktop by moving files into a folder which i also can not do....

lx07 · 18 Nov 2015

We could try to move everything that is on the desktop into another folder. As the delete command works the move command should also.

Once they are in the new folder you should be able to delete the ones you want and move the others back to desktop through normal means. This should be much easier.

Give me 5 minutes or so I'll work out the command.

lx07 · 18 Nov 2015

Please enter these 4 commands in order exactly as they are (including spaces) from a command window as before.

1. This command will create a new folder in your documents folder called OldDesktop

Code:

mkdir %userprofile%\Documents\OldDesktop

2. This command will change your working directory to the desktop so the later commands move the right things

Code:

cd %userprofile%\Desktop

3. This command will move all of the files from your desktop to the new folder OldDesktop.

Code:

for %i in (*) do move "%i" %userprofile%\Documents\OldDesktop

4. This command will move all of the folders (also known as directories) including their contents from your desktop to the new folder OldDesktop.

Code:

for /d  %i in (*) do move "%i" %userprofile%\Documents\OldDesktop

Note

Commands 1 and 2 should finish without saying anything.
Command 3 should say "1 file(s) moved." repeated as many times as you have files on your desktop.
Command 4 should say "1 dir(s) moved." repeated as many times as you have folders on your desktop.

Once these have completed you should not have anything on your desktop. You can then open your documents folder, browse to OldDesktop and inside should be everything that was on your desktop. You can then delete, tidy and copy things back to your desktop as you wish.

Hope this helps - let us know if you have any questions or see any errors.

Word Man · 18 Nov 2015

Maybe another approach? Have seen permissions problems myself in one upgrade back when build 10240 first went public.
Maybe you have a similar permissions problem?

You might want to apply the tutorial found at this link (single left click on any of the blue letters: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3...dows-10-a.html
and using the Options 2, 3, or 4 described in it - putting, as a start, the full path to your desktop folder in place of the red lettered paths in the tutorial, duplicating everything as specified, including the spaces.

If you need help following the tutorial, we can do that in this thread also.

meg ryan · 19 Nov 2015

Thank you 1x07 and wordman...... this is going to take while lol will be back ......