What happens exactly when you either right click an icon and choose Delete from the menu, or click an icon once and hit the Delete key?

As I've said, there are no properties apparent in these extra icons. Therefore, they cannot be deleted. It says that it is invalid and cannot delete.

Reboot the system into Windows Safe Mode and then try and delete them from there.

To access Windows Safe Mode, do the following.

1. Reboot and immediately after the BIOS logo disappears, hit the F8 key a few times until the Windows Advanced Menu appears.
2. Then use the down/up arrow keys to select Safe Mode and hit Enter.

There's a picture of what the Windows Advanced menu looks like on this site: http://www.computerhope.com/issues/chsafe.htm As you can see, "Safe Mode" is the top option.

In case you've never booted into Windows Safe Mode before, the desktop display will only load in 800x600 which means everything will be outsized. This is normal.

Have you tried dragging them to the recycle bin?

I have already tried the Safe Mode thing, as well as dragging. It will not allow deletion.

Try doing this.

1. Right click a blank part of the desktop and go to Properties.
2. Click the Desktop tab and then click the Customize Desktop button.
3. In the bottom half of the menu, click the Clean Desktop Now button.
4. Select the icons you want to delete when the Wizard runs.

It's a problem with windows, not with firefox. Anytime you remove a program and leave behind shortcuts, you run this risk (and it persists all the way into Windows 7; they haven't fixed it). I know enough to be relatively certain that you CAN remove them through the registry, but I don't know enough to feel comfortable saying "do this" or "don't do that". Especially considering how 'dangerous' messing with the registry can be. (in other words, please don't go changing things around in there without instructions!)

Is there someone with a higher level of tech skills that can give instructions as to what the entries would be for firefox icons?

If not, IrisC, you might want to check somewhere like forums.majorgeeks.com where you are going to get people who are very knowledgeable about windows, as opposed to here where you are mainly going to get firefox experts.

Please keep in mind that everyone here is a volunteer helping out in their spare time. While the general tech-ish person can explain a lot of things about a web browser, this is a more advanced windows issue, and may be out of the scope of most people here's understanding.

::edit:: do try Xircal's solution first though. Anything that doesn't involve editing the registry is going to be lower risk.

Thank you, but no, it's not a Windows issue.

Thanks, but I do know how to "hide" icons. All this wizard will do is move icons into a folder "unused icons". It does not delete them, nor does it explain why this happened in the first place and still leaves me with an unwanted folder as well. First time in 17 years, and not a small amount of experience, that I have encountered this issue from an upgrade.

Never mind. Back to EI. Thank you, Xircal, for trying.

You could maybe try the fix documented here: http://www.opendb.net/element/367.php

Not to be disrespectful, but I was wondering why not? I've heard of the same thing happening with various other programs in multiple versions of windows when the application is removed without removing the shortcut. The shortcut icon on the desktop then becomes impossible to remove using normal methods. Since it happens across a number of programs, I would infer that it would be a windows problem, and not an application specific problem. Thus, I was wondering if there is a specific reason that it's not? I'm genuinely curious; I'm a web developer, not an IT specialist, and I'd be happy to correct my information if I'm incorrect. :)

The desktop icon had been removed first, and program uninstalled before the re-install. These multiple extra icons appeared afterwards, once the 4.0 was fully installed. That said, over the years, even without removing desktop icon and uninstalling first, this has never happened with any other update or upgrade with any other program.

Thanks, Xircal, I'll have a look at that. Please don't knock yourself out on this much more. I appreciate the effort, but there's probably a lot of others needing help on something or another that are waiting and I don't want to tie up your time too much.