# Odd icon appears on my desktop **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 30, 2004, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-icon-appears-on-my-desktop/282245 "2004-12-30T14:50:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-icon-appears-on-my-desktop/282245/1 "2004-12-30T14:50:13Z")
From time to time, an odd shortcut will appear on my desktop (Windows XP.) The caption will usually be unreadable, but will also often have the 1/4 symbol in it. I have copied the caption to word and checked various fonts and it always seems to be unprintable characters. I have looked at the properties and the shortcut and it does not appear to be linked to any program. I have thought that it may be a hacker attack, but I have a firewall and last night the shortcut showed up twice, but the firewall did not report any intruder attempts. Anyone have any ideas what this shortcut may be or where it is coming from? ---
**Author:** ![Alvis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alvis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alvis)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-icon-appears-on-my-desktop/282245/2 "2004-12-30T14:55:08Z")
Did you take a screenshot? ---
**Author:** ![lno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-icon-appears-on-my-desktop/282245/3 "2004-12-30T14:56:17Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > I have thought that it may be a hacker attack, but I have a firewall and last night the shortcut showed up twice, but the firewall did not report any intruder attempts. If the firewall is already allowing someone access in a specific manner, it may not consider other instances as attacks. Do you have a screenshot? ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-icon-appears-on-my-desktop/282245/4 "2004-12-30T15:15:15Z")
No screen shot, but it will show up again in a few days, I’ll grab a screen shot then. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-icon-appears-on-my-desktop/282245/5 "2004-12-30T15:45:41Z")
Since it’s a shortcut, have you tried to right-click on it and look at Properties? What does it point to? ---
**Author:** ![Alvis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alvis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alvis)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-icon-appears-on-my-desktop/282245/6 "2004-12-30T15:51:15Z")
> [@](#): > > Since it’s a shortcut, have you tried to right-click on it and look at Properties? What does it point to? He already covered this - > [@](#): > > I have looked at the properties and the shortcut and it does not appear to be linked to any program ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-icon-appears-on-my-desktop/282245/7 "2004-12-30T15:52:15Z")
Sorry, must have read too quickly. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2005, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-icon-appears-on-my-desktop/282245/8 "2005-01-01T14:18:54Z")
So the icon appeared this morning. I have a screen capture of it, but no where to post it. The caption is  斣낼溧搆¼. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2005, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-icon-appears-on-my-desktop/282245/9 "2005-01-01T14:28:29Z")
Email me the screenshot. I’ll put it up on my webserver for you. ---
**Author:** ![jasonh300](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/46a35a/32.png) [@jasonh300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasonh300)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2005, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-icon-appears-on-my-desktop/282245/10 "2005-01-01T15:20:43Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > 斣낼溧搆¼. I searched Google for this and it doesn’t find anything, but the individual characters seem to come up with Japanese websites. It shows as Japanese characters here…you might not be seeing them as Japanese if you don’t have the Japanese fonts installed. No telling what they mean because all of the results are in Japanese characters. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2005, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-icon-appears-on-my-desktop/282245/11 "2005-01-01T15:36:19Z")
Thanks **Jonathan Chance** , it is on its way. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2005, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-icon-appears-on-my-desktop/282245/12 "2005-01-01T15:46:30Z")
OK, folks. Observe: [http://www.wooleysark.com/OddShortCut.jpg](http://www.wooleysark.com/OddShortCut.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![jasonh300](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/46a35a/32.png) [@jasonh300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasonh300)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2005, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-icon-appears-on-my-desktop/282245/13 "2005-01-01T16:17:44Z")
Don’t know about everybody else, but this is what I saw in the original post. [http://www.officeinkllc.com/japanese.jpg](http://www.officeinkllc.com/japanese.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2005, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-icon-appears-on-my-desktop/282245/14 "2005-01-01T17:12:06Z")
A new one has appeared. It’s caption is 瘀漀爀椀琀攀 倀氀愀挀攀猀 唀瀀搀愀琀椀渀最⸀⸀⸀ ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2005, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-icon-appears-on-my-desktop/282245/15 "2005-01-01T19:22:57Z")
My first guess would be that you have some spyware or adware on your drive… have you done an anti-virus sweep of your computer? ---
**Author:** ![jasonh300](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/46a35a/32.png) [@jasonh300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasonh300)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2005, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-icon-appears-on-my-desktop/282245/16 "2005-01-01T19:27:20Z")
The first part of it came up in Google. It offered to traslate it from ‘simple Chinese’ but it didn’t work. [This was the result before the translation. Maybe somebody can read Chinese?](http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=lang_en&newwindow=1&safe=off&q=%E7%98%80%E6%BC%80%E7%88%80%E6%A4%80%E7%90%80%E6%94%80&btnG=Search) ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2005, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-icon-appears-on-my-desktop/282245/17 "2005-01-01T21:50:32Z")
> [@Kythereia](#): > > My first guess would be that you have some spyware or adware on your drive… have you done an anti-virus sweep of your computer? I have McAfee and it runs regularly. I have Adaware and it is run regularly. I went to my firewall site and asked it to run it’s scan for trojans and it reported nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Scruloose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@Scruloose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scruloose)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2005, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-icon-appears-on-my-desktop/282245/18 "2005-01-01T22:45:49Z")
Running these through an online translator, I get the following: 斣낼溧搆¼ = ? It will put out? ? $$ln That was returned for Korean. The second one (Chinese - Simplified) 瘀漀爀椀琀攀 倀氀愀挀攀猀 唀瀀搀愀琀椀渀最 = The stasis □□□□climbs □□□changes countenance □climbs □□□□supports by the arm changes countenance □□□ From here: [http://www.worldlingo.com/wl/translate](http://www.worldlingo.com/wl/translate) Yeah, I’d be carpet bombing my computer with anti-scumware munitions. ---
**Author:** ![Scruloose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@Scruloose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scruloose)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2005, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-icon-appears-on-my-desktop/282245/19 "2005-01-01T22:57:51Z")
Here’s another free online translator I found, in case anyone’s interested: [http://www.appliedlanguage.com/free\_translation.shtml](http://www.appliedlanguage.com/free_translation.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2005, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-icon-appears-on-my-desktop/282245/20 "2005-01-02T00:15:19Z")
Doesn’t look like a shortcut to me. It looks more like something is using your desktop directory to create temporary files. This would appear as a mysterious and disappearing file on your desktop. I’d investigate what is pointing at your desktop directory in your registry and see what your temp directories are set to. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-icon-appears-on-my-desktop/282245.md?page=2)