Why are there TWO desktop-icons whenever I install something..??

Question

each time I install something, TWO desktop icons appear. When I try to remove one of them, the other goes too... what ever I try I can't seem to find out WHY there appear two of them instead of one... Any ideas???????? ( about one year ago I had a system crash... 85% restored, but then two icons... and it never was right again... ) win xp home. sp2.

Answer 1

Take a picture snapshot of these icons and give us a link....Its possible that there is a running tool on your system monitoring new installs....possible virus/trojan? What you can do is disable all running applications that start when you turn on your machine and see if those icons still appear.....if they dont then it is one of these running programs.....to temporarily disable these running programs do this:

1. Windows-Key + R (brings up the run window)
2. Type: msconfig
3. Click the "Startup" tab
4. Uncheck all the checked items...(remember which ones were checked)
5. Click OK
6. Click "Restart" computer

When your computer reboots then install sometihng new...do the icons appear still? If not then you can systematically start weeding out the culprit from that list by turning on one by one and restarting...tedious but you can at least get piece of mind that it is resolved.

If it still persists then it says you might have a running service doing this OR a possible hidden process...would strongly recommend you running an anti-virus program.