The following message comes up: The drive or network connection that the shortcut " refers to is unavailable. Please make sure the disk is properly inserted or the network resource is available, and then try again. The message appears about 30 percent of the time when we are clicking on something on the desktop or on the Internet. It even does this when we connect to the Internet. Then when we click OK, opens the Internet anyway. It is extremely irritating! What is wrong, and how can I fix it? The computer is my parents' computer so I don't know what they did to cause it. They have Windows 95.

well, for a "bad" shortcut on the desktop, right-click on it and select properties. in the target field, make sure the path is correct... not much, i know, but a start...

Your parent's computer could have been on a peer to peer network and sharing resources at one time; Otherwise the user could have attempted to configure unsuccesfuly shared resources. Therefore any shortcut or file related to that inexistent drive will produce the above mentioned message. Try to disconnect the network drive or unmap it and the problem will disappear. Good luck and I hope that the answer is in the right direction. Joe

It's possible some programs have been moved to other locations or deleted/uninstalled and all you really have to do is delete the shortcut and make a new one or delete the ones that are linked to dead programs.

I think Joe is pointed in the right direction. It sounds like it is looking for a drive on another computer. If the drive letter is wrong it gives "invalid name" message. I noticed that when I right-click on 'My Computer' icon it has a 'disconnect network drive', maybe try that.

Sounds like dead shortcuts. When programs are deleted, moved, reinstalled, or whatever the old shorcuts may be pointing to the wrong program, hence the error message. You can have confusion if shortcuts on the start bar, task bar and desktop are not in sync, meaning some or none will work. Best to delete the ones giving the error message, then go to Explorer, find the commands that start each program, right click the highlighted file, then select .

Sounds like dead shortcuts. When programs are deleted, moved, reinstalled, or whatever the old shorcuts may be pointing to the wrong program, hence the error message. You can have confusion if shortcuts on the start bar, task bar and desktop are not in sync, meaning some or none will work. Best to delete the ones giving the error message, then go to Explorer, find the commands that start each program, right click the highlighted file, & select .