.pdf icon cannot be removed from the desktop

Close your browser, restart computer. Try deleting it now.
If still a problem, right click on it and see it's blocked. If so, unblock it.

Is any Adobe program running? Look at Task Manager. If yes, end it (right click on it, select End Task in Task Manager) then try deleting the file.

Just how long is that filename? If the full path & the filename add up to more than about 255 characters then windows cannot handle it. If it is not excessively long then do not even read the rest of this post.

If you are not sure then open a command window, change folder to your Desktop folder

Code:

CD /D C:\Users\User\Desktop

then run this command using the correct filename not what I have written

Code:

ren "The full name of the awkward one.pdf" Fred.pdf

If you get an error message that it cannot find the file then
1 Right-click on a blank area of the Desktop & select Refresh to make sure this problem is not an illusion.
2 Check the file really is still there by looking at your Desktop in File explorer - probably in C:\Users\User\Desktop
3 If it is not there, check for it in C:\Users\Public\Desktop and try to delete it from there Not applicable.
4 If it really is still on your Desktop [C:\Users\User\Desktop] then Windows simply cannot read the filename because the path-filename is excessively long.

If the cause of the problem is an excessively long path-filename, there is a way of running a command that can get you out of this situation -
- You must move everything else off your Desktop first because the whole of the Desktop and any Desktop subfolders will be deleted. Mistakes cannot be corrected afterwards.
- You will need to check your Desktop path i.e. the path to where this awkward file is - probably C:\Users\User\Desktop. Mistakes cannot be corrected afterwards. I have used C:\Users\User\Desktop in the example below.
- Create an empty folder somewhere else, anywhere else. Call it whatever you want but Dummy is appropriate. Just so I can give an example, I assume you will create this folder at C:\Users\User\Documents\Dummy
- Run this command only after checking all the paths are correct for your situation. Mistakes cannot be corrected afterwards.

Code:

RoboCopy C:\Users\User\Documents\Dummy C:\Users\User\Desktop /MIR

- This command will create a mirror image of your empty Dummy folder on the Desktop. Since the Dummy is empty, so will be Desktop be.

Denis