Deleteing menu items

I still find it very strange that users can just delete target files so easily meaning that software would have to be re-installed again - even major applications, surely this delete function should just delete a pointer to the target just as for shortcuts.

Regular TLB menu's contain just shortcuts, so deleting an item from such a menu means you only delete the shortcut pointing to the original file or program.

Like Yuri said, only with virtual folders, it shows the original directory contents, so deleting a file from that 'menu' deletes the original file. If you don't want that to happen, simply create a regular menu (rather than a virtual folder). Or use Windows' user permissions to disallow deletion of those files...