What are invalid shortcuts in Windows?
Generally speaking, invalid shortcuts (also called broken shortcuts) are desktop, taskbar, Start Menu, or file explorer shortcuts that no longer point to a valid target in Windows. These shortcuts become broken when the original file, folder, app, or resource they were linked to is moved, deleted, renamed, or uninstalled. For example, when you uninstall a software without deleting its shortcuts, or delete files or folders manually, broken shortcuts may occur.
Invalid shortcuts themselves are harmless and don’t affect system performance. They’re simply dead links. In this article, we’ll walk you through several methods to efficiently clear out these unwanted shortcuts from your Windows system.
Ways to Remove Broken Shortcuts
We listed two methods here to help you remove invalid shortcuts in Windows 11.
Method 1. Manual Removal
Basically, you can find and delete these invalid shortcuts manually by following this:
1. To remove Broken Shortcuts on your Windows computer, navigate to the following folder location:
C:\Users\
2. This folder contains the names of the apps installed on your PC.
3. Open the app folder, which has a broken shortcut.
4. Remove the Shortcut that is not working.
5. Follow this step for every broken shortcut.
You can also search .lnk in File Explorer to find the shortcuts in specific folders.
Method 2. Wise Care 365
If you are pursuing an efficient way to remove invalid shortcuts, I recommend you to use reliable third party tools, like Wise Care 365, which is a comprehensive tool to help clean up disk and fix registry problems on your computer, protecting your privacy and making your PC more secure. Correspondingly, it can also quickly clear broken shortcuts quickly.
Step 2. Find the Invalid Shortcuts item
Run Wise Care 365 directly after installation, navigate to the System Cleaner> Common Cleaner. Then click Windows system part to find and check the Invalid Shortcuts item.
Step 3. Scan out the invalid shortcuts to clean
Tap on the Scan button to get stared, you will see those broken paths listed, then click Clean to remove them.
Conclusion:
It’s not a complicated work to remove invalid shortcuts in Windows, but choose an appropriate method, like Wise Care 365 can largely save your time.
