Disable creation of desktop.ini files in Windows 8

Anonymous

Hi all,

I want to know if it is some way to disable creation of desktop.ini files, at least in the desktop system folder.

I knew that in XP there was a DWORD key that should be created to avoid creating all desktop.ini files in the computer.

I don't want the desktop.ini folder features (icon personalization, remembering the last view options in each folder, etc)

So I don't want to hide the desktop.ini files. I want to remove them and avoid Windows 8 creating again and again.

If Microsoft disabled this personalization that was present in older version of Windows and now is not available (to disable creation of desktop.ini files) just say it. If there is some other registry key to be created or modified, please advise.

Thank you

Pablo.

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Anonymous

Hi Pablo,

I would like you to inform that Desktop.ini is a system file which deals with common folders such as Downloads, Documents, Pictures, and Music etc. When a change is made in these folders, Desktop.ini is updated.

Removing the file will cause issues with the Operating System and so it is not recommended to remove the files. The desktop.ini file by default has the System, Hidden and Read-only attributes assigned.

If you want to stop these messages, go to Folder Options through Search click settings and you will see Folder Options, click it and the View tab and scroll until you see " Hide protected operation system files (recommended) and put a check in the box.

Hope this answers your query. You can write back to us for further queries/issues related to windows and we will be glad to assist you further.

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58 additional answers

Anonymous

2014-05-20T20:20:50+00:00

To get to the folder options open up the File explorer, then click View, then on the far right click options. Hope this helps and saves you time searching.
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Anonymous

2014-05-11T03:06:10+00:00

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]

"UseDesktopIniCache"=dword:00000000

This worked on Windows 8 for me. Thanks. It was driving me insane! Only side-effect I found was recycle bin, stops creating option to empty since it has no desktop.ini it doesn't change the image of the icon and I think that's what triggers this option in the menu? What? Anyways, thanks!

EDIT: I think if we schedule a delete of desktop.ini 1 min after restart they will go away by themselves? Anybody?
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Anonymous

2014-05-03T15:25:31+00:00

Hi,

You should be able to just delete them... This is what I have been doing without issues...

Every once in awhile one or two will reappear after installing a program or like you, changing an icon.

It doesn't happen often though.

At one time I thought that it wasn't possible to do this without problems, but have since found out differently.. If you look in your USER folder, you will see a "Desktop" folder with all of the icons for your desktop...
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Anonymous

2014-05-03T11:33:28+00:00

i recently changed a desktop shortcut icon to the STOP sign and after an update today,

i found 2 desktop ini files which contained the following..

[.ShellClassInfo]

LocalizedResourceName=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-21799

and...

[.ShellClassInfo]

LocalizedResourceName=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-21769

IconResource=%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-183

The short cut was for "My Computer" as i like to have on the desktop.
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