In my domain I have the Desktop and My Documents redirected to the file server. I found out that when someone deletes a file from the Desktop it doesn't go to the recycle bin. If you delete a file from My documents it does go to the recycle bin.
They are both redirected using Group policy. Permissions look the same on both folders. My only thought is that because the My documents is redirected to the home folder Windows is acting like it's a local folder and not a network folder.
Thanks
This is the expected behavior when deleting files on network shares, including redirected My Documents / Desktop etc.
However, if you have Volume Shadow Copies enabled on the volume where the share resides, the deleted files can be recovered from the last snapshot. Of course if the file was created or modified since the last snapshot was taken, then it won't be possible to recover the version of the file that was deleted.
Take a look here for some info on setting up Shadow Copies.
Working with the Windows Server 2003 Volume Shadow Copy Service.
Are your My Documents folders synchronized to be offline for the user using Offline Folders? If so, I believe the deletion will send to the local recycle bin rather than permanently delete. Perhaps your desktop is not covered by Offline folders which results in the differing behavior.