+Need To Stop ALL Desktop Icon Changes

I recently put together two new Windows 11 Pro PCs for myself and my wife that have identical hardware. The one I put together in October received the 22H2 version of Windows 11 while the one in November received the 23H2 version.

The problem is the icons on the desktop. The 22H2 PC is plagued with icons that have green check marks, green arrows, little brown boxes, and magnifying glasses that come and go, Obviously only one variation is shown at a time, but it seems there is always one of them showing up. On the 23H2 PC build I have not seen a single icon change.

I know there are plenty of suggestions for eliminating the problem on each type of icon change but they do not seem to work. For example the green check mark problem is associated with One Drive, and I have never had Microsoft account and I have removed all traces of One Drive that I can find on the PC. Why would I still get green check marks?

The bottom line, regardless of what can be done for individual notices, is that I am looking for a way to simply turn off all such notices regardless of the reason why they are there. I have searched extensively on line and cannot find such a solution. There must be something that can be done to end this nonsense once and for all for all possible cases.

Hopefully I have only missed it in my searches. Spending hours trying to find a solution that works for each variation is very frustrating.

Welcome to the forum. Sorry no one has answered sooner. I have a suspicion it is tied to Onedrive. It would be helpful if you could post a screenshot of the troublesome desktop.

Also, on both machines please right click on Desktop folder>properties>location tab. Post back the location of each folder.
You say these 2 machines are identical except one is 22h2 and one is 23h2. Are these 2 machines synced to the same MS account or to two different MS accounts.

It is not possible to post a screen shot as there is too much identifiable information that I would not like to be made available to the entire web.

On the problem machine there are two columns of icons on the left side of the screen and two columns on the right side of the screen for a total of 44 icons. As I look at the screen now there are little green arrows on the bottom left of each icon and they are pointing up and to the right except for the icon of the recycle bin which is normal. The icons are of various types. Some were created by the software during the installation process and some were created by myself for various purposes. If only a few had the problem, knowing the properties of each icon might show a pattern, but that is not the case. Also I am not really looking for the reason for each type of icon change as I am sure there are different reasons for each type of icon change.

Since on one machine there are never any icon changes and on the other machine there are four different kinds of icon changes, I am NOT looking for the reason for each icon change. I am instead looking to disable the underlying procedure that actually creates the icon change in each case. There should be a common procedure, call, whatever, that creates the changed icon once the condition for requiring the icon change is met. If you could eliminate or disable that, it would solve the problem in all cases.

As for One Drive, as I mentioned previously, that has been uninstalled on both machines and there has never been a Microsoft account associated with any Windows PC that I have built or maintained.

At this point I expect there will be no general solution, but figured it was worth a shot. I only wish Microsoft would stop adding “features” and changes that are not wanted to justify new versions. I am also responsible for Linux servers with Slackware as the OS and never see the continuing problems I see with Windows.

PK232 said:

As for One Drive, as I mentioned previously, that has been uninstalled on both machines and there has never been a Microsoft account associated with any Windows PC that I have built or maintained.

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I recall a thread from back in Aug, I don’t know what happened in the end.


Answering questions asked is the general format of this forum, so as people can get their thinking caps on. There were a couple of simple ones asked by @glasskuter

I repeat. On both machines, in file explorer please right click on Desktop folder>properties>location tab. Does the location show C:\users\yourusername\desktop.

Since I can't see it I can only guess. The magnifying glass icon overlay usually indicates an ease of access feature is activated. Maybe someone has done so by inadvertently using one of the keyboard shortcut . Check magnifier setting.

• Type Control Panel in the search box.
• Press Enter.
• Click Ease of Access Center icon.
• Click Make the computer easier to see.
• Uncheck the Turn on Magnifier box.
• Click OK.
• Close the Ease if Access Center window

Other than that, the only suggestions I have are below. I am assuming you have restarted the machine.

@antspants
Thank you for your reference. I have only looked quickly at that thread, but will study it further as it appears there could be some useful information presented.

@glasskuter
My apologies. I misunderstood what the second question in your original post was asking. The desktop folders in both both cases show C:\users\username\desktop.

I will examine the tutorials you referenced and do what they suggest.

Thank you.

PK232 said:

@antspants
Thank you for your reference. I have only looked quickly at that thread, but will study it further as it appears there could be some useful information presented.

@glasskuter
My apologies. I misunderstood what the second question in your original post was asking. The desktop folders in both both cases show C:\users\username\desktop.

I will examine the tutorials you referenced and do what they suggest.

Thank you.

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Good one. Let us know how you go

I suspect something is causing it to glitch. Try right-clicking the desktop then refresh if it happens again and see if it fixes the icons.