Root is true super user account on the machine but it also has to be enabled so chances are the Root user was not configured to have that folder on the desktop or the Root user is not enabled.
To enable Root to check you would need to open and unlock the Directory Utility (can be found through Sys Prefs -> Users and Groups -> Login Items or Spotlight Search it).
Once the panel is unlocked you can find "Enable Root User" under the "Edit" option in the task bar and set a password.
Once its enabled reboot the computer and log in using the Username Root and the Password of your choosing.

It should be noted again that Root is a super user account and will not ask you to confirm passwords before making changes to the OS or System libraries so you can accidentally break a ton of stuff if you are not careful.

So what command should I have used to removed the shortcut from all users desktops? Or I guess any user that has the shortcut?

As a script, something like:

#!/bin/bash

# create an array

_Users=( `ls /Users | grep -v "Shared"`)



echo ${_Users[@]}



# remove shortcut

for TheUser in ${_Users[@]}

do

rm -f /Users/$TheUser/TheShortcut

done



exit 0;

What about using:

#!/bin/sh
sudo rm -r /applications/"skoolbo.app"
sudo for /f %%a in ('dir /B /AD C:Users') do (
if exist "C:Users%%aDesktopskoolbo" del /F /Q "C:Users%%aDesktopskoolbo"
)

The goal is to remove the app and any desktop shortcuts that have been created.

I guess in my rush to find the answer I ended up grabbing a Windows script.

You should be able add that to the script above and do both.

I used the following in that script for the shortcut path for an alias for Calculator I created.

rm -f /Users/$TheUser/Desktop/Calculator

So you might use something like this to do the app and the shortcut:

rm -f /Users/$TheUser/Desktop/MacKeeper

rm -f /Applications/MacKeeper.app

Here is how you can remove a list of files from all user's desktops on the Mac.

#!/bin/bash



userList=$(/usr/bin/dscl . list /Users | grep -v "^_" | grep -v nobody | grep -v daemon | grep -v root)

fileNames=(

    file1

    file2

    file3

    file4

)



for userName in $userList; do

    userHome=$(/usr/bin/dscl . read "/Users/$userName" NFSHomeDirectory | awk '{print $2}')

    for fileName in "${fileNames[@]}"; do

        file="$userHome/Desktop/$fileName"

        if [[ -e "$file" ]]; then

            echo "$file exists; deleting."

            rm -Rf "$file"

        else

            echo "$file does not exist; skipping."

        fi

    done

done



exit 0

I ended up using:

#!/bin/bash

sudo rm -r /applications/"skoolbo.app"

# create an array

_Users=( `ls /Users`)



#echo ${_Users[@]}



# remove shortcut

for TheUser in ${_Users[@]}

do

    if [ -f "/Users/$TheUser/Desktop/skoolbo" ]; then

        sudo rm -f /Users/$TheUser/Desktop/skoolbo

        echo sudo rm -f /Users/$TheUser/Desktop/skoolbo

    fi

done



exit 0;

This seems to do what I need. Looking at some of your scripts maybe more echos would be useful though.

How do you get you script to look right in posts?

@Sobchak Use the little >_ button above where you create your comment.

Thanks that looks much better. I wish hovering over all those button told you what they did.