Deleting Desktop Icons.

I'm a bit uncertain about deleting desktop icons.

I recently got two new kinds:

downloaded youtube vids got put in desktop with an icon on the desktop.
saved .txt files got saved to the desktop with an icon.

I think I've found that if I right click and delete the video icons the icons goes away, which is what I want, and the video file itself remains, which is what I want.

But if I right click and delete the .txt file icons both the file and the icon disappear, which is not what I want.

Is there a difference in how the two should operate?

abrogard said:

I'm a bit uncertain about deleting desktop icons.

I recently got two new kinds:

downloaded youtube vids got put in desktop with an icon on the desktop.
saved .txt files got saved to the desktop with an icon.

I think I've found that if I right click and delete the video icons the icons goes away, which is what I want, and the video file itself remains, which is what I want.

But if I right click and delete the .txt file icons both the file and the icon disappear, which is not what I want.

Is there a difference in how the two should operate?

Yes. Apparently the videos create a shortcut on the desktop to the actual file (which is why deleting the video icons on the desktop result in the file remaining), and the txt files are actual files located on the desktop which is why they vanish when you delete the icon.

Simple.

the videos actually were on the desktop - i.e. in the desktop folder. mp3's and others. right there. with the links. i've just moved everything out.

yes, save to documents or such. i know. i agree. i do. i actually save to a data disk removed from the system disk. what happened here with all this stuff i don't know yet

but it happened and when i casually deleted some icons thinking that was the way to go - from past experience - i got a shock when actual text files went missing.