On renaming a file, folder or shortcut on the Windows 7 desktop, if you find that it disappears, and reappears only after you refresh the desktop, then you might want to check out the reason.
This usually occurs if the User Account Control (UAC) is set to “Never Notify” for the logged on user.
If you find this happening frequently, you may have to set the UAC to the Default setting of “Default – Notify me only when programs try to make changes to my computer”.
If however, changes are made to the default UAC setting, you can do one of the following:
1. Keep C:\Users\Public\Desktop folder window opened on the user’s desktop while doing rename operation
2. Press F5 on user’s desktop when this problem happens.
Should help!
Sourced from KB2018895.
Thanks for this tip, I was experiencing this problem and did not realise that there was this bug in Win 7, lets hope that MS get this fixed.