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
2022-01-15T00:28:33+00:00 It was Freeway who first mentioned Norton on page 1 of this thread. Thanks for that report which sounds clear & easy enough to do. I think many will be helped by that. Good going.
So, these are Norton checkmarks in squares (as PJ_2354 posted)...
OneDrive uses small, green circles instead of squares...
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Anonymous
2021-12-01T19:08:48+00:00 "Also, what is at "right-click Taskbar, Task Manager, Startup tab"? Anything that sounds like it would want to do that?"
Looked at the Startup tab, and there was Microsoft One Drive running as a startup. I disabled it, then rebooted, and Voila! the checkmarks had disappeared.
Probably worthwhile for everyone to check the startup processes, sneaky gits!
Thanks for your help
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Anonymous
2021-06-24T01:37:38+00:00 Couple of days ago, I removed arrows from the desktop icons using Registry Edit. Next day black boxes appeared in place of arrows. I managed to correct this by some more RegEdit. It worked fine until today. I changed my dual HD monitors with dual 4K monitors and as soon as I restarted the PC, all was fine except no icons at all. Followed many instructions on the net for more than three hours without any success. Then I remembered doing this arrow thing. I deleted the key which was added previously in the registry and Bingo! All icons reappeared.
This is just for someone who may go through the same experience.