I more or less answered your questions above, though perhaps not directly.

You did not answer the question I asked in bold about what kind of shortcuts you are referring to.

One other thing I notice on an earlier Windows, on XP I receive system pop-up messages (relatively frequently in an annoying way) about unused icons (shortcuts) or a similar message and asks whether I wish to clean them up. I learnt many years to always answer no, otherwise it causes problems.

You might remember I am almost entirely a MacOS user. I only use Windows 10 for testing. I do not know all the ins and outs of the Windows system or all the quirks of the system. So I am not the appropriate person to answer your questions about shortcuts.
I invite anybody else to assist here if you think you know the answer to this shortcut topic.