rightclick your desktop
refresh
worked for me
Green checkmarks on desktop icons
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(128, 8%, 22%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Anonymous
How do I get rid of the green check marks on my desktop icons and photos in windows 10?
I must have done something, but I don't know what---today, when I went to my photos, there's these checkmarks on each photo--
I googled and can't seem to fix it---the word Drop Box comes up and I have no idea what that is--
Can someone help?
Windows for home | Windows 10 | Settings
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Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
Answer accepted by question author
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(89.60000000000001, 18%, 18%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EJD%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
John DeV
170.2K
Reputation points
Independent Advisor
Hello MaryWilliamsRN,
I'm John an Independent Advisor and a Microsoft user like you. I'll be happy to assist you today. I understand you have a problem with green check marks on your icons on windows 10.
This indicates that those files are synchronized with Microsoft OneDrive
Look for OneDrive(Cloud) icon on the bottom right side of your taskbar (system tray)
Right click it then select Close OneDrive
Click Close OneDrive again
If it doesn't work, Safely restart your PC
Kindly let me know if this helps or if you have any further concerns.
Sincerely,
John DeV
Independent Advisor
48 additional answers
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Anonymous
2021-03-12T05:13:34+00:00 If you use Norton and have backed up My Documents or other files that have desktop icons, by default Norton puts a green check mark on the icon to let you know it is backed up.
Ad Freeray said, go to Norton's Backup settings and turn off "Backup Status Overlays". You don't need to reboot, just right click somewhere on the open desktop and click Refresh and they should go away.
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Anonymous
2021-03-01T20:11:08+00:00 I suppoae the one without green checkmarks does not have Files On-Demand turned on (as in my picture above).
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Anonymous
2021-03-01T18:53:09+00:00 Here's my complaint: I'm running Office 365 on Windows 10-20H2, and I WANT OneDrive to backup my Desktop and my Photos -- but I DON'T WANT it to slap those obnoxious green checkmarks on the desktop icons when the item has been backed up. There needs to be a way to turn that off -- it unnecessarily clutters the Desktop UI.
Oddly, I there are two PCs in our household (different Microsoft accounts) that are using OneDrive to backup the Desktop, but only one machine displays the green checkmarks on the Desktop. More Microsoft sloppiness.