Unable to Rename or Move Folders in Windows Vista

When you use Windows Explorer to rename folders on a Windows Vista-based computer, nothing may happen, or the following error is shown:

The file or folder does not exist

In addition, the following symptoms may be observed:

  • Unable to move folders to a different location, nor be able to restore deleted items from the Recycle Bin.
  • Unable to launch special folders using the Shell: command. For example, when you run the command shell:My Music, you may receive the following error:
Windows cannot find ’shell:My Music’. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again.

Resolution

The problems 1 & 2 mentioned in the Symptoms section above, were first reported on MSFN forums and a registry fix was posted in that page. These problems occur if the following registry branch is completely missing:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ explorer \ FolderDescriptions

To resolve the problem, use these steps:

  1. Download folder_desc.zip and save it to Desktop
  2. Unzip and extract the archive to a folder of your choice
  3. Then right-click folder_desc.reg and choose Merge
  4. Logoff and login back for the change to take effect.

See Also

Error message when you use Windows Explorer to rename folders on a Windows Vista-based computer

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2 Responses to “Unable to Rename or Move Folders in Windows Vista” Subscribe to comments!

  1. WEnk
    said this on Saturday, May 23rd 2009 9:33 pm

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  2. Kaimera
    said this on Monday, April 6th 2009 4:40 pm

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