Solved Most desktop icons disappeared -- tied to deleting OneDrive folder?

This is what my desktop looks like right now, and that's after trashing several icons. Oh, and here are screenshots I was referring to (saved to a USB flash drive). After turning off Pictures and saving, things run and then all three come back, or I stop backup and all three come back on. There are about three variations, but they end up the same way. Sometimes it takes me onto View Progress popup. That's how I must be ending up with so many icons?

Oh dear Lord, what a mess. I can't make head or tails of all those icons. Could you go to file explorer and open desktop folder from there. Temporarily, set your VIEW by details and SORT by name- ascending so I can get a better idea of what is duplicated. Shoot me a screenshot of it.

Since @Brink has not replied yet I will PM him.

glasskuter said:

Oh dear Lord, what a mess. I can't make head or tails of all those icons. Could you go to file explorer and open desktop folder from there. Temporarily, set your VIEW by details and SORT by name- ascending so I can get a better idea of what is duplicated. Shoot me a screenshot of it.

Since @Brink has not replied yet I will PM him.

Click to expand...

Sorry, so I could use the computer, I deleted all the copies. Any other way to see, such as the OneDrive Desktop folder?

Hello,

I'm afraid with all that has happened, it may be easier to add another admin account on the computer to use instead, and then delete the old one when everything checks out.

Brink said:

Hello,

I'm afraid with all that has happened, it may be easier to add another admin account on the computer to use instead, and then delete the old one when everything checks out.

Click to expand...

If I do that, do I have reinstall all apps and programs? Does that help solve the OneDrive issue?

highstream said:

If I do that, do I have reinstall all apps and programs? Does that help solve the OneDrive issue?

Click to expand...

It could be a test to see if everything is where it's suppose to be.

You will indeed need to reinstall all your apps and programs to the new account.

If you set up the new account as a local account for now, it will not have OneDrive enabled and syncing. This way you can disable and/or uninstall OneDrive first, before switching this new local account to a Microsoft account (if wanted).

Do note, you will not be able to switch the new local account to the same Microsoft account as the old account until you delete the old account or switch it to a local account.

Update: Thanks to glaakuter, we took a close look at my install, found some odd behavior, possibly because RAID in BIOS had been activated (under a different name). In the end, we decided to do a clean install, with me as Local-Administrator this time. OneDrive is still present for the moment, but will not be a bother anymore. So big big thanks to glasskuter for guiding me through the troubleshooting and new install. Hopefully, the third time around for Win 11 will be the charm — well, that it works out ok.

There was a Netplwiz problem that came along as a result of this new install that may be of interest to the site's Tutorial makers (if it isn't already there -- I didn't find it).

With this install, Netplwiz didn't work for disabling sign-in on startup; the checkbox and explanatory sentence weren't there. Nor did the other method under Settings>...Sign-in Options work, because the key option sentence isn't there either: "For improved security, only allow Windows Hello Sign-in for Microsoft accounts on this device (Recommended). " The question was what to do. With a little searching, it turned out to be a fairly common problem and I found the following thread on the MS site that addressed it:

The main answer on page 1 is by an independent advisor (Emily), but the key to solving it for me, i.e., getting Netplwiz working correctly again, was on page 3. The first part of the reply there by Anonymous was all I needed (with the help of Glasskuter, who didn't know the solution to the problem and hadn't seen this thread):
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"Anonymous

If "user must enter a username and password to use this computer" doesn't exist in Netplwiz, then, we have to do something in Powershell (Admin) to get it back...
Copy this:
reg ADD "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\PasswordLess\Device" /v DevicePasswordLessBuildVersion /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

Open PowerShell(Admin)

Right click in the Powershell, and click on insert, and hit Enter. Restart the computer, and it should work... Tested on another computer, I have..."
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The PowerShell run worked for me. After rebooting, the checkbox and sentence for disabling sign-in were back, and another reboot verified it.