Notepad opens on boot

Next time Notepad opens, don't close it. Open Task Manager (ctrl+shift+esc), go to Details tab (if you can't see the tabs, click "More Details", right click the column names at the top (Name, PID, Status, User Name, etc.), click "Select columns", find and check "Command Line", click OK, find notepad.exe in Task Manager, hover the mouse cursor over the text under the command line column next to notepad.exe, and something like "C:\Windows\system32\Notepad.exe" with some other text after it should pop up. Does it say "C:\Users\Public\Desktop\desktop.ini"?

If I enable hidden system file viewing, two files appear on my desktop, both named desktop.ini. One is located at "C:\users\<my username>\desktop" and the other "C:\users\Public\desktop". 1st opens in Notepad normally, but the latter causes Notepad to open with the same error as the one you are getting when you log in.

For the record, the desktop.ini file stores settings for specific folders, like how zoomed in the icons are. The 1st desktop.ini on my desktop stores settings specific to my account, and the other one stores settings which are applied to new accounts made on my computer. Basically, when you create a new user, it copies the settings from the invisible Public account, including the 2nd desktop.ini, creating a clean slate.

You said:

Next time Notepad opens, don't close it. Open Task Manager (ctrl+shift+esc), go to Details tab (if you can't see the tabs, click "More Details", right click the column names at the top (Name, PID, Status, User Name, etc.), click "Select columns", find and check "Command Line", click OK, find notepad.exe in Task Manager, hover the mouse cursor over the text under the command line column next to notepad.exe, and something like "C:\Windows\system32\Notepad.exe" with some other text after it should pop up. Does it say "C:\Users\Public\Desktop\desktop.ini"?

Thanks! But the path way shown is different, My Name, App Data, Roaming, Microsoft, Windows, Start Up etc etc along those lines. The Desktop.ini file has NO permissions and I can do nothing with it!!!

C:\Users\Phil\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\desktop.ini

SORTED! Many thanks You! :)
I managed to give the .ini file some permissions and duly deleted it.
Notepad no more trying to open on start uo.

The command line reads c:\Windows\system32\NOTEPAD.exe"c:\users\louberk29\AppData\roaming\microsoft\Windows\startmenu\Progr ams\startup

louberk29 said:

I havn't had time to work on this further, but if I find a cure I will post it.

go to file explorer
go to the c drive and then type in desktop.ini in the search box and tap enter
it will show all the files that contains the desktop.ini
look for the ones that contains startup or start menu and delete all.
you have to scroll from up to down searching for all the files that contains start menu,
and all must be thoroughly deleted.
then restart or reboot your windows you'll see that it's fixed, the notepad will not appear again or start as windows start.
if have further problem let me know

This worked perfectly for me - many thanks.