Green check marks on desktop icons

Seems like any program that checks or verify's other programs such as an anti-virus or backup program or cloud program puts a green check mark to let the user know that that program, document or folder has been given the 'once over' an either is verified, deemed to be good or saved. Have never seen this type thing till W10 rolled out.

I don't use Norton or any AV other than Defender, nor do I use any 'Cloud' service, nor do I use any M$ back-up/restore function, but still have gotten those check marks (from time to time) so there's no telling what or how many programs (called apps these days which I think is a joke it's a program folks not a smart phone deal) trigger this.

The stand out thing is it is harmless (alarming at first sight not knowing what the heck it is) a desktop refresh removes them, but if you're a power user like myself you're always wanting to know what the heck is going on at all times.

I just had a computer that attempted to update from Win10  1703 to Win10 1709. After several failed attempts and automatic rollbacks, the computer finally ended up with a BSOD that I could not recover. I ended up doing a clean install of Win10 from an ISO (win install disk). Of course, everything was wiped and I won't get into how upset I am about the whole automatic update thing here.

My point is that I had the green arrows showing up for the first time ever on any computer I've had. The root cause for me was that One Cloud was set by default to backup several things. I did not set this at install nor was I given a choice during the install process.

Fruitlessnoodle's reply was the answer to my case.  At the bottom of windows in the taskbar over on the right side, in the tray area, is where the one drive icon is located. In my case, I had to hover my pointer over the up arrow to show hidden icons. The white "cloud' symbol is the One Drive.  I right clicked the cloud to get to the menu that has settings. Clicking settings opens a box with several tabs to change what happens with the One Drive storage.

The autosave tab allows you save to "this computer only" for several items. This turns off automatic saving in the cloud and then you won't have automatic syncing across devices form One Drive and you won't have green check marks on your desktop icons.

If you choose to use this feature in the future just turn it back on. 

And that is the mystery of the green checkboxes (at least for me).

I had the same problem, I am not running Norton 260 or any other back up program. My computer was backing everything up to one drive and sharing, I turned off sharing and turn off the back up to one drive and the queen checkmarks are gone

Thank You Q-U-I-G-M-O

I had the same issue with the windows updates that failed serval time.  I was able to do a role back 2 times but on the last update Microsoft put through my computer crashed and I could not role back any more. I also did a clean install of Windows 10, and that's when I noticed the queen checkmarks.  I turn off the sharing and backup to the one drive, (I also was given the choice during install) and all the queen checkmarks are gone.

thank you again