Scan stops / stuck / freezes at xx% - SOLVED

I actually have Smart Security, but I thought I would post this here as it is to do with the virus scanner.
I have a new install on a Vista system, and my scan was stopping at 68% - could not 'Pause' or 'Stop' it. Had to kill it with task manager. The scanner 'Target' showed ..... Yahoo! Widgets, so I thought that must be the problem and uninstalled it. Scan again stopped at 68% but this time at 'WinAVI', and then I realized that what it shows as the Target, or the last entry in the log, is not the one giving the problem, but the next file to be scanned (which of course you cannot see because the scan is stuck).
So by doing a 'custom scan' of just the section given by the first part of the path given by 'target' I finally narrowed it down to the offending file, which was a shortcut to a folder called 'Templates'. This shortcut was definitely corrupt, as it showed strange things in properties, like zero bytes and no target. So I deleted it thinking I was done! But NO, I had to repeat this process and delete 12 corrupt files which were all folder shortcuts, such as "Network Shortcuts", "Printer Shotcuts", "Recent", "Templates".

Now how these files (some even dated 2/11/2006) got to be on a new install of Vista Home I cannot imagine, and why do they completely stun ESET ?

I will try and pass this info to ESET.

 

I doubt it's the shortcut but more the corrupt data it's pointing to that confuses it. I can't understand why they would be there on a fresh install. Is it genuine?

 

Yes, the Vista was genuine - came with a new Acer computer (about 3 weeks ago).
The folder shortcuts were very strange. I thought I would copy one to send to ESET, but could not copy them, or cut/paste them. Luckily I could delete them.
Sometimes just right clicking one was enough to crash explorer. As I said the ones I could open properties said zero bytes size, and no target destination.