How to hide desktop.ini on desktop?

[mmo]

On my system I have configured Explorer such, that it displays hidden and system files.
Since I did that, I see two desktop.ini files on my desktop.

How can I hide those (just on the desktop)? And why are there two desktop.ini files displayed?

Michael

 

[Arc]

Open an explorer window, click on Organise > Folder and Search options > view. If the red marked box is unchecked, check it.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/394-hidden-files-folders-show-hide.html


However, there should be only one desktop.ini file. If it reproduces, and begins to spread in other system folders, and accompanied with others like recycle.bin etc, get a malware /virus scan as early as possible.

 

[Mark Phelps]

I like to see the hidden system files, so I don't want ALL of them hidden and could find no way to just hide these two.

OK, so maybe I did the wrong thing ... but I just deleted them.

Been two weeks now -- no Ill effects that I notice.

 

[xile2010]

you could always hide desktop icon's.. not sure the consequences for deleteing them, but they may return. system files usually do.

 

[7leagueboot]

I have a desktop.ini file appearing in every single folder of my machine and I want them hidden. I need to have hidden system files displayed so I can't use that option in Windows Explorer.

Someone suggested that having a desktop.ini file in folders other than the desktop is a symptom of malware however, in my case at least, I doubt that because if I read the content of the file it shows harmless items:

[.ShellClassInfo]
LocalizedResourceName=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-21779
InfoTip=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-12688
IconResource=%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-113
IconFile=%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll
IconIndex=-236

I should add this never happened with Vista Ultimate despite my having hidden system files displayed.

Ideally, it would be wonderful if Microsoft could make it possible to hide individual files and/or file types.

 

[logicearth]

Ideally, it would be wonderful if Microsoft could make it possible to hide individual files and/or file types.

They did! But you have it set to show hidden files....so you want a third option but of course you would turn that off to...When will it stop? Do they need 10 levels of different "hidden" flags for folders and files? There are currently two flags that control the hidden-ness "Hidden" and "System" (System must be combined with Hidden to actually hide).

Now this begs the question. Why do you need to see hidden system files all the time?

 

[7leagueboot]

Why do you need to see hidden system files all the time?

Because I need access to the content of the System32 folder, more specifically the shell32.dll and hosts files.

I discovered that the problem is not with Windows Explorer but Xplorer2. The programmer has decided that there should be no difference between hidden and system files, either they are hidden or they are not. Users of this program have asked him to change that and at least respect the way Microsoft configured it but he won't.

 

[logicearth]

"C:\Windows\System32\shell32.dll" is not hidden
"C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts" is not hidden

Neither of those files require the setting in question to be disabled. So as you pointed out. The problem is not this setting but the fact that you are using a third-party viewer. Simple enough.

Btw, the only system files that have both system and hidden are desktop.ini files, and special files that reside outside of C:\Windows. Like the User's registry (NTUSER.DAT) Other then that most if not all system files are not hidden. (Unless you use third-party clients but that is unsupported to begin with.)

 

[7leagueboot]

Regretfully, despite several 3rd party Windows Explorer replacements being made available, Microsoft still has not understood that dual pane viewers are what most people want/require. This is one of the main reasons I never use Windows Explorer.

 

[logicearth]

Well if "most" people wanted that, it would have been implemented. But sadly on the internet "most" is actually the minority when it comes to the user base of Windows. Its a hard pill to swallow for us tech geeks, but the normal people out number us greatly. And they get the royal treatment first.

 

[Mike Connor]

You can set up windows explorer to "toggle" hidden files so that you only see them when you want to. Just install StExBar;

Stefan's Tools

<http://tools.tortoisesvn.net/StExBar.html>

Many third party file managers also allow one to toggle these files.

Regards....Mike Connor

 

[whatsgolden]

You have two desktop.ini on the desktop because one resides on your desktop, the other on the public desktop.

 

[A Guy]

To hide the .ini files, make sure you have Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) checked in your folder view options.



A Guy

 

[whatsgolden]

To hide the .ini files, make sure you have Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) checked in your folder view options.

Uh, he wants to be able to see hidden and protected operating system files, just not on the desktop.

"On my system I have configured Explorer such, that it displays hidden and system files."

 

[bobtran]

Simply hide the system files until you need them, then change the setting to show the system files. Personally I do choose show hidden files (just not system files).

 

[SledgeDG]

Why so difficult?
I just hide those (and other stuff) behind my Sidebar gadgets ( I pulled it up a little for demonstration purposes but you get my drift


-DG

 

[debugged]

Well, if you really want a clean desktop the cheeky answer is: right-click on desktop > View: untick "Show desktop icons"

Otherwise, if you want to leave the "Hide operating system files.." unticked all the time, you're stuck with those .ini files.

I was sick of drilling into folder options everytime to change this setting, and couldn't find a reg tweak that worked, so I made an autohotkey macro that takes me straight there, just have to tick or untick. Is anyone using a better way to do this?

 

[acepl]

Sorry for digging up reaaaaally old thread...

Have the same problem.
My question is: if I'm unable to hide those two icons on desktop only, why on earth there is a section "Folder views" with highly unusable buttons, and specifically "Apply to folders"...
From XP times the changes made in the "View" tab was applied ONLY to folder currently open in Windows Explorer. Only after clicking "Apply to folders" it was made universal throughout Windows.

Or I'm missing something?

 

[ProfessorC]

This is silly

Like acepl, sorry to jump on such an old thread, but this issue still exists and I'm really looking for a solution.

There are very valid reasons to want to view system and hidden files/directories. I'm a developer and I need access to the AppData folder under the user profile and/or the ProgramData directory off of root.

So I have "Show hidden files, folders and drives" checked for all folder views. This, of course, exposes the desktop.ini icon(s) on the Desktop (and yes, I have two... because, as someone said, one comes from the shared/pubic desktop and the other from the desktop of the current user profile).

The problem really is that Windows no longer seems to adhere to the individual folder views I try to set up. Used to be I could go into the view settings for a particular folder, and make changes to just that view, and it wouldn't be propagated to other folders unless I clicked on "Apply to Folders". But now, it seems that whatever changes I make to a view get applied to all folders whether I click that button or not.

For instance, I went to the desktop folder and made the change to hide hidden files, wanting it to be applied to just the desktop folder, but instead hidden files were no longer shown in ANY folder views.

This doesn't seem that difficult, and isn't the "10 layers deep" complexity that has been stated here. It's simply a matter of being able to apply different settings to different folder views... like we used to be able to do. Period.

Maybe there's a Windows 7 power tool that restores this ability (and actually makes the "Apply to folders" button mean something?



EDIT: Finally found a solution buried in my Google results.
Nevermore Be Bothered by Desktop.ini | A High-Tech Blech!

Basically use RegEdit to create a new DWORD key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\UseDesktopIniCache
and set it to 0 (zero)

Delete any existing desktop.ini files on the desktop, and they will never reappear.

 

[logicearth]

I do not know what you are going on about ProfessorC, the "Show hidden files" is not tied a Folder View state, it is a global setting that effects what Windows Explorer will show. This is how it was in every version of Windows. I do not know where you got the idea that it was tied to the folder's view state. But that never was the case.

Now as for hiding desktop.ini files, it is simple. Leave "Hide System Files" on. Done.