Coach,
I am sorry to say, that that is one of the main symptoms of the magistr virus. This article may help you. http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.magistr.24876@mm.html
Charger



Dell Dimension V350, Pentium II Processor @ 350 MHZ with MMX Technology, 128mgb RAM, Maxtor Ultra ATA 8.4 GIG Hard Drive, Windows 98, Dell D1028L 17'' Monitor, Toshiba DVD ROM, Backpack CD-RW, Logitech mouse, Norton Anti Virus 2001, Zone Alarm

coach919,
Your computer may very well be infected with the W32.Magistr@mm virus. "Running" desktop icons are one of the effects of this virus, which you can read more about here. The document also contains removal instructions.

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Custom built Athlon Thunderbird 800MHz, Abit KT7A mobo, 256MB PC133 SDRAM
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 40GB 7200RPM ATA 100
MSI StarForce 818 nVidia GeForce2 MX 32MB 4xAGP
Micron 700Mx 17" monitor
E-IDE 50x CD-ROM, Yamaha 16x/10x/40x CD-RW
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz DSP Sound, Altec Lansing ACS-33 speakers
Toshiba PCX1100 DOCSIS cable modem, Linksys NC100 FastEthernet 10/100 NIC
Philips Vesta Pro Scan PC Camera, Logitech optical wheel mouse
Win 98SE

Thanks for the advice Dell Talkers