Number 271 - December 2005

Phantom Folder In CompuPic
by Carl Tenning, Tacoma Open Group For Microcomputers
I was using CompuPic to browse my hard drive for image files and came across a strange directory in the My Documents folder. It was named "bridgebuilder.zip". When I viewed the My Documents folder with Windows Explorer, it was not shown. Since I didn't remember ever downloading anything called "bridgebuilder", I deleted the files in the folder using CompuPic. The files were deleted without difficulty, but when I then attempted to remove the empty folder with CompuPic, I got a message that "This is a permanent folder and may not be removed."    Next, I went to "Folder Options" in the Control Panel and made sure that under the Advanced settings, the setting for "Hidden files and folders" was checked to show hidden files and folders. Even with this setting, Windows Explorer still would not show the folder "bridgebuilder.zip".    Then I did a search on GOOGLE for "bridgebuilder.zip" to see if it might be some form of virus or malware. Nothing brought up by GOOGLE indicated it was anything more than a legitimate game downloadable from the internet along with some players comments about the game.	Finally I decided to do a Scandisk to see if that would remove the phantom folder from CompuPic. That brought up another problem, because there is no Scandisk application in Windows XP like there was in Windows 98 or Windows ME. Again I needed to do a GOOGLE search to find out how to do a Scandisk in Windows XP. Thank heaven for GOOGLE. I found the answer:    1) Open Windows Explorer    2) Expand My Computer    3) Right click on drive c:    4) Select Properties    5) Select the Tools tab    6) Click "Check Now" under Error-checking    After this when I re-opened CompuPic, the phantom file was gone.
Number 271 - December 2005