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Recently a client discover that all of their desktop icons (files and shortcuts) have large Grey X's in the corner on their Windows 8.1 home PC. The files are still accessible upon click through to them. They do not have a tape drive (one possible cause I have seen) and the shortcuts point to various locations on the primary C: drive (documents folder etc). Repairing the icon cache temporarily resolved but it seems to just come back again. They are running Carbonite as a backup, however a brief search of "Carbonite with Grey X's on icons" has not yet yielded anything either. Any help would be welcomed.
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.
I experienced the problem for the first time ever this morning in one of my laptops After tracking what I did this morning that might had caused it, I finally remembered to have installed an update for Boxcryptor. After uninstalling the Boxcryptor app, the grey X's disappeared from all those folder its was on. Bingo! Hope it helps!
Windows 10 doesn't put it there, and it uses the same API's to allow other programs to do so that has existed since at least Windows 2000. Windows 10 itself isn't doing anything different.
Unfortunately some other program/utility/tweak has gone bad, but you can easily verify that it doesn't (can't) occur on a fresh installation. Of course if you can give us steps to demonstrate otherwise, you'll get a free support case and a dedicated technician to support you.
IN any event, the question is--why would these stupid Xs appear in the first place for no apparent reason and with no explanation as to why they appeared. Even experience users like us have a problem with this. I go back to Windows 3.1 and I've never seen this occur before, nor have I ever seen this problem discussed before. I think the Win10 coders need to look at this.
That's what I thought also. But by merely unchecking the "Hidden Files" box WITH NO OTHER CHANGES - the Xs went away on my desktop. YMMV.
Sorry, I can’t help you any further than this. Somehow your settings don’t stick—whether it is due to the administer actions or the policy. At least you know what CAUSES the X’s and how to make them go away. The next problem is how to get the settings to stick. The fact that the O/S allows you to make the changes tells me it’s not due to something the administrator did. Good luck.
