Odd - I've got a dual boot system with XP and Vista (from XP) and just tried it to the same folder on Vista and managed to delete a load of desktop icons from XP's desktop
even though they are on a different partition which is VERY odd
I'll need to look into this - maybe it's something to do with Vista and dos commands, so a disclaimer - don't use this if your using Vista
(It's gonna take me a while to restore my desktop now!! - especially as this method bypasses the recycle bin).
So don't use for now apologies I should have tried it out in Vista first - I'll post back hopefully with a solution (hopefully)
PS It does work in XP standalone