Unable to remove Homegroup Icon

Anonymous
2010-04-11T18:26:47+00:00

original title: Homegroup Icon

The HOMEGROUP Icon suddenly appeared on my desktop. I can't move it. I don't want it there. Can I get rid of the icon without disturbing the HOMEGROUP file?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Accessibility

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Anonymous
2010-04-12T10:31:57+00:00

Hi Halnormank,

You may follow the link given below and follow the suggestion by ‘Dale’ to remove the folder from the registry.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproui/thread/366b1b5d-e177-46be-84d1-9a7864a2725b

Below are the steps from the same link for your convenience.

Important: This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following link. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Back-up-the-registry

  1. Press Win + R to open a run box.
  2. Type: regedit and hint Enter.
  3. Navigate to:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\

  1. Find a folder (key) with the name {B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93} , this is the registry entry Homegroup icon. Delete the folder from the registry.
  2. Press F5 to refresh the desktop and see if the icon disappears.

Hope this information is helpful.

Amrita M

Microsoft Answers Support Engineer

Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-11-04T17:42:47+00:00

    Thank you for this. It was very helpful and worked!!

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-11-07T17:04:53+00:00

    This is **** ridiculous!

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-11-13T15:21:53+00:00

    This worked great! Much better than editing the registry...that's for sure!

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  4. Anonymous
    2012-11-17T17:46:06+00:00

    Hi, I too just had the same issue the the Homegroup icon suddenly appearing on my desktop. I did find a suggestion to right-click the desktop and select "personalise", then select "change desktop icons". The homegroup icon would not be displayed, but it was suggested to unselect "recycle", then "apply" and then reselect. This didn't work (and didn't make any sense anyway). So instead I checked "user's files" and applied. I found that the homegroup icon was replaced by my home folder (which had my name on it). I then repeated the process, but unchecked the "user's files" and applied. Low and behold, the icon disappeared from my desktop completely. I hope this made sense and is useful for others.

    This also worked for me in windows 8 but instead I already had my user files on my desktop so I unchecked it, applied, the homegroup icon disappeared, then rechecked it.

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