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These icons are not short cuts, but notepad files. Why are they there? How can they be eliminated?
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Hi AntipodeamRJ,
Enabling the Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) setting in Folder Options hides the two Desktop.ini files, as well. To access the Folder Options, open Windows Explorer, click Organize, click Folder and Search Options and select the View tab.
Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows Desktop Experience]
I guess you also sweep dirt under the carpet...
Best option is too hide system files. Users will normally at max only need hidden files visible. Its much safer this way. You really need to access system files every day in order to pay to have them visible?
Its because you didnt run it as administrator
This thread has been open for nearly three years and no better solution has shown up. Obviously Microsoft does not care. I should be able to show my operating system files without having unwanted icons appear on my desktop.
observation 1: what most are not understanding here is that the files are obviously NEEDED by windows to function properly. apparently folder specific functionality is stored within the desktop.ini file. somewhere this is documented.
question 1: my questions about this topic have nothing to do about 'seeing' or not seeing the file. the only thing that 'bothers' me about having two files named 'desktop.ini' existing in the same folder is just that - that under normal windows policy it IS NOT POSSIBLE to have two files, with the exact same filename - coexisting in the same folder. so how is it possible to have two 'desktop.ini' files be found in the c:\users\user\desktop folder?
question 2: why is it that using the windows gui interface, i am able to 'see' the desktop.ini file on my desktop - while if i open a cmd prompt window and cd into c:\users\user\desktop, then execute dir *.*, the files dont list there? what mechanism allows the files to be seen on the desktop, but not seen by the 'dir' command?
any help/explanations would be welcome, as of course, there is always more to know about windows than one imagines... thanks in advance.
