{"id":26716,"date":"2022-05-29T22:16:59","date_gmt":"2022-05-29T16:46:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.58.113.91\/blog\/?p=26716"},"modified":"2022-05-29T22:31:51","modified_gmt":"2022-05-29T17:01:51","slug":"duplicate-desktop-icons-in-windows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/duplicate-desktop-icons-in-windows\/","title":{"rendered":"Fix for Duplicate Desktop Icons in Windows"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every time when you place a file or a shortcut on your Desktop, you may get 2 identical icons. If one icon is deleted, the other icon will also be removed if you refresh the Desktop. The path for both icons would be the same. You may be wondering what causes the display of duplicate desktop icons in Windows.<\/p>\n

Cause<\/h2>\n

This problem is caused by inadvertently dragging the desktop folder about in the person’s profile folder or All Users. Or, the user may have incorrectly changed the “User Shell Folders” registry value.<\/p>\n

The Desktop is composed of two folders, one is the current user’s Desktop, and the other is the “All Users” (a.k.a, Public) Desktop. The Desktop is a special folder that displays the icons from both these locations.<\/p>\n

Duplicate desktop icons issue occurs if both are set to the same folder. For instance, if the current user “Desktop” and All users’ “Desktop” paths (in the registry) are pointing to the same folder (e.g., %USERPROFILE%\\Desktop<\/code>), the Windows shell enumerates the items twice and displays the same set of icons twice on the desktop.<\/p>\n

Fix for Duplicate Desktop Icons in Windows<\/h2>\n

To fix the duplicate desktop icons issue, fix the shell folder paths<\/a> for “Desktop” folder in the registry. Follow these steps:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Start the Registry Editor (regedit.exe<\/code>)<\/li>\n
  2. Go to the following location:\n
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\User Shell Folders<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n
  3. Double-click “Common Desktop” and set its value data to:\n
    %PUBLIC%\\Desktop<\/pre>\n
    (Make sure that the value type is REG_EXPAND_SZ. If it’s showing up as REG_SZ, then delete the value and create a new value of type REG_EXPAND_SZ and name it “Common Desktop”)<\/em><\/li>\n
  4. Go to the following location:\n
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\User Shell Folders<\/pre>\n
    RELATED:<\/strong> Switch between HKCU and HKLM quickly in Registry Editor<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n
  5. Double-click “Desktop” and set its value data to:\n
    %USERPROFILE%\\Desktop<\/pre>\n
    (Make sure that the value type is REG_EXPAND_SZ. If it’s showing up as REG_SZ, then delete the value and create a new value of type REG_EXPAND_SZ and name it “Common Desktop”)<\/em>\n<\/li>\n
  6. Exit the Registry Editor.<\/li>\n
  7. Log off and log back in. Or restart the Explorer shell<\/a> for the change to take effect.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    RELATED:<\/strong> Windows 10\/11 User Shell Folders Restore Default Paths<\/a><\/div>\n
    I hope you were able to fix the double\/duplicate icons issue on the Desktop. The above instructions apply to all versions of Windows, including Windows 10\/11.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
    Every time when you place a file or a shortcut on your Desktop, you may get 2 identical icons. If one icon is deleted, the other icon will also be removed if you refresh the Desktop. The path for both icons would be the same. You may be wondering what causes the display of duplicate … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[441],"class_list":["post-26716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-windows","tag-registry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":59146,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/shell-folders-appear-on-desktop\/","url_meta":{"origin":26716,"position":0},"title":"Shell Folder Icons Appear on the Desktop in Windows 11","author":"Ramesh","date":"July 8, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"On some systems, the shell folders such as Music, Pictures, Desktop, Downloads, Videos, and Home icons appear on the desktop after installing Windows 11. These shell folders are not supposed to appear on the desktop by default. The \"Delete\" will be missing for those shell folders, and pressing delete on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Windows 11"","block_context":{"text":"Windows 11","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-11\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"music, pictures, videos, desktop, downloads, home icons appear on desktop - how to hide them","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/special-folders-appear-on-desktop.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/special-folders-appear-on-desktop.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/special-folders-appear-on-desktop.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/special-folders-appear-on-desktop.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3355,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/desktop-icons-tiles-view-mode-fix\/","url_meta":{"origin":26716,"position":1},"title":"Desktop looks like a regular folder or Changes to Tiles view mode","author":"Ramesh","date":"August 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"If your Desktop has suddenly changed to \"Tiles\" view mode on your Windows computer, you may have accidentally hit a shortcut key that switches the folder view mode. It's also possible that the FFlags registry value data is incorrect. This article tells you how to restore the Desktop's default view\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Windows 10"","block_context":{"text":"Windows 10","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-10\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"desktop folder view changed fflags","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/desktop-appear-normal-folder-fflags.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/desktop-appear-normal-folder-fflags.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/desktop-appear-normal-folder-fflags.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/desktop-appear-normal-folder-fflags.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/desktop-appear-normal-folder-fflags.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/desktop-appear-normal-folder-fflags.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3607,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/undo-desktop-icons-auto-arrange-restart-explorer-exe\/","url_meta":{"origin":26716,"position":2},"title":"How to Undo Desktop Icons Auto Arrange? [Quick Tip]","author":"Ramesh","date":"July 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"If you've accidentally reset your custom desktop icons layout by enabling Auto-arrange or by hitting a wrong key sequence, here is a neat trick to revert back to the original position. Desktop icons layout remains in the memory until you initiate a logoff. During user account logoff or when restarting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Windows"","block_context":{"text":"Windows","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":68028,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/user-icon-looks-regular-folder-windows-11\/","url_meta":{"origin":26716,"position":3},"title":"Windows 11 User icon looks like a Regular folder","author":"Ramesh","date":"December 16, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"After adding the user profile icon to the desktop (via Settings > Personalization > Themes > Desktop icon settings), the user icon may look like a regular folder with the generic yellow folder icon. Users expect the icon to appear like the one below. 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