Removing Libraries and HomeGroup icons from the Windows 7 desktop
August 11th, 2009 | In WindowsAfter importing the settings from my XP installation into the freshly installed copy of Windows 7 RTM with the included Windows Easy Transfer tool, I suddenly had two additional icons on my desktop: HomeGroup and Libraries. And there is no obvious way of removing them. You cannot just delete them and they are not listed in the “Desktop Icon Settings” dialog, either.
A quick Google search (maybe I should have used Bing for this…) turned up one suggested solution which is mentioned in several forums: Use RegEdit to delete {B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93} and {031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5} from HKLM\SOFWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace.
Well, don’t! This also removes HomeGroup and Libraries from the Explorer tree (and maybe other places). There must be a better solution. After all, the icons were not present on the desktop initially but they did show up in Explorer.
Under the assumption that all desktop icons (whether they are listed in “Desktop Icon Settings” or not) are managed in one place in the registry, I fired up RegEdit and Desktop Icon Settings, exported the registry, enabled the Control Panel icon on the desktop and then exported again. A diff of the two registry dumps showed one obvious change:
In HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\ClassicStartMenu a DWord entry named {5399E694-6CE5-4D6C-8FCE-1D8870FDCBA0} was changed from 1 to 0. The same entry was added with value 0 to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\NewStartPanel.
I checked the same folders under HKLM. They contain more entries, including {B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93} and {031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5}. Hey, those IDs look familiar! I created copies of them with value 1 unter HKCU\…\ClassicStartMenu and HKCU\…\NewStartPanel and voilà, the icons were gone from the desktop.
I hope you don’t have to waste as much time on this problem as I did. Disclaimer: Changing the registry can mess up your system. Do this at your own risk!
November 25th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Thanks for the tip! In my searching about this topic I found a reg patch that also included HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE as well as HKCU. Is patching that necessary? Your changes to HKCU seemed to work.
Would a registry patch like this work?
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\NewStartPanel]
“{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}”=dword:00000001
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\ClassicStartMenu]
“{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}”=dword:00000001
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\NewStartPanel]
“{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}”=dword:00000001
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\ClassicStartMenu]
“{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}”=dword:00000001
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\NewStartPanel]
“{031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5}”=dword:00000001
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\ClassicStartMenu]
“{031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5}”=dword:00000001
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\NewStartPanel]
“{031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5}”=dword:00000001
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\ClassicStartMenu]
“{031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5}”=dword:00000001
Thanks in advance,
- Frank
January 14th, 2010 at 12:54 pm
thanks, that was very usevul – I had the entry in NewStartPanel but not in ClassicStartMenu where it was needed
February 21st, 2010 at 10:15 pm
I thanked God when I found this link… I thought *this is IT*. But no… it didn’t work for me. I’m running Windows 7 X64 Build 7600. I used a usb2usb cable to transfer files with Windows Easy Transfer and the dreaded Libraries and some other one appeared on my desktop. I’ve tried every single thing I can find and only one registry tweak (mentioned in the first part of your post here) worked but, like you said, removed Libraries from explorer.
I really have ripped nearly all my hair out as I’m one of those *weird* guys that likes having my desktop how I want it, not how a computer says its going to be. I don’t want this icon on my desktop but it looks like I’ll have to accept it. If you have any other ideas… PLEASE email me or post it here, I’ll check back. I’m so tired of the silly mistakes that Microsoft makes. There was no options during any part of the file transfers to not have this happen. And from the looks of google searching, many many people are having this happen to them with no real fix found yet.
Does your fix only work on 32bit? Or are you using a beta build? I’m at a loss….
Thanks for trying to help me, thanks for helping others.
February 21st, 2010 at 10:34 pm
Also, when you said
“I created copies of them with value 1 under HKCU\…\ClassicStartMenu and HKCU\…\NewStartPanel”
Did you copy ALL entries or only the DD5 and A93 entries? Would it be possible for you to create a .reg file with exactly what you did. I felt as though I understood what you wanted me to do, but with it not working I’m trying to figure out anything that can help me.
I appreciate your time.
February 22nd, 2010 at 8:17 pm
Jonathan, I think you did the right thing. Have you tried the registry patch provided by Frank in the 1st comment? The HKCU parts look correct to me. Maybe patching HKLM in addition would help.
I only tried this on a 32-Bit RTM build but I’ll install a 64-bit version on my new PC (which finally arrived after waiting 3 months for the Radeon HD5870 to become available at decent prices!) within the next few days, so I can check if it works on 64 bit, too.
February 23rd, 2010 at 10:05 am
Stefan,
Thanks a lot for the quick reply! I can defiantly say it doesn’t work in X64. I was waiting for a reply from you about Franks post since he asked if it would work, it left uncertainty in my mind. I’ll go ahead and try it now and post back the results. Everything I’ve tried so far has appeared to either do nothing, or delete the icon but also the libraries in Explorer. This is very frustrating and Microsoft needs to provide a patch for this.
Anyways, I’ll let you know what happens and thank you so much for trying this out on 64bit, I hope you were planning on doing that already and not just doing it for me/us.
Take care.
February 24th, 2010 at 1:24 pm
Stefan, no dice on Franks suggestion. I’ll just wait it out and keep searching, if I find anything that fixes this or sparks an idea, I’ll run it past you.
I’d love to conquer this! I will…
March 17th, 2010 at 3:24 pm
hi, i accidentally remove B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93 from hklm… how to restore the registry?