Vista – Desktop.ini Files Shown on the Desktop

Q: I have enabled the Show hidden files and folders setting in the Folder Options. Now, the two Desktop.ini icons are now showing on the desktop. I know that one comes from the C:\Users\Public\Desktop, the other comes from the current users Desktop folder. How do I hide them whilst still keeping other hidden files and folder visible?

A: The two desktop.ini files by default have the System, Hidden and Read-only attributes assigned. So they should not be showing on the Desktop unless the following option is disabled in Folder Options:

Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)

When I faced this problem in my own computer running Windows Vista, the option Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) was already enabled. Later I found that the ShowSuperHidden value was not present in the registry, but its corresponding GUI option Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) is enabled though. This sounds like a bug to me.

Fix

I then got this working by opening Folder Options (by typing CONTROL FOLDERS in Start – Search box), unchecked Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) and clicked Apply. Then re-checked the option and clicked Apply, OK.

The two desktop.ini files are no longer visible on the Desktop.

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19 Comments

  1. Plug
    said this on Wednesday, August 11th 2010 12:00 am

    I was dumb enough to completely remove them from the desktop without saving a back up of the two ini files first! *facepalm* , now my desktop is acting weird some time after booting, resulting in ‘focus loss’ of the icons in the system tray so that you can’t double click on them to open programs/what not.

    Really frustrating.

    Is there a way to get them on the desktop again, back-up somewhere to be found in the windows directory or online? Am using vista home premium 32 bit.

    Cheers,

    Richard

  2. TyagiShobha
    said this on Thursday, April 8th 2010 10:04 pm

    thanks all I was about to delete these desktop.ini files considering them as bugs

  3. .s
    said this on Saturday, December 19th 2009 5:16 pm

    a method of curing headache by cutting the head off.
    I want to see system files, except not on desktop…

  4. deb
    said this on Wednesday, September 30th 2009 2:01 am

    Yay! All better. “the googler” saves the day again.

  5. wishal
    said this on Friday, September 11th 2009 12:04 pm

    thnx…its gone!!!!!!

  6. mark
    said this on Thursday, May 14th 2009 8:10 pm

    this solution does not work for vista 64 business. any other ideas?

  7. vishval
    said this on Friday, April 10th 2009 9:45 am

    haha…thank you very much…mr. genius….

  8. Lee
    said this on Monday, March 23rd 2009 4:48 pm

    Thats been annoying me for months. Nice !!!

  9. Troy
    said this on Friday, March 13th 2009 10:43 am

    This is one of the most annoying problems with Vista. In XP you can set everything to show and yet you don’t get the desktop.ini’s on the desktop.

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