win8 Delete stubborn icon

[PNWDweller]

This has quickly become an annoyance to me when it comes to Win8. In the below screen shot, you will see two icons I have highlighted which are listed as system folders. I can honestly see the Homegroup being one, but the Charter Cloud Drive Navigator? (It does link to your online account storage through their own GUI). I can easily access this function via the Metro Interface or launching it any way that I want, so don't really want to have this sitting there on the desktop as I have been pretty crazy about wanting to keep a clean desktop. :)

Does anyone know of a trick to prevent these from sticking to the desktop? I have tried Safe Mode which doesn't let me do anything to delete them. I have a program I run for the homegroup (Registry edit) icon which works until I reboot (ANNOYING) and don't really want to keep having to do that. I would prefer to just have a tweak or something to limit these from appearing. :) Ironically, the other system folders such as Control Panel and Computer don't show. So this is really odd to me.

[Farstrider]

Don't know if this will work, give it a bash and see what happens!

Open Computer and right-click on "Homegroup" icon present in Navigation pane and select ?Change Home Group Settings?

Now click on "Leave the homegroup..." link given at bottom. (it will ask, and you need to confirm it)

Open Services.msc. Scroll down and disable

HomeGroup Listener

HomeGroup Provider

Using 64Bit, this got rid of them in Windows explorer also.

[trek]

Can you not delete the cloud drive shortcut from an elevated command prompt?

[PNWDweller]

Can you not delete the cloud drive shortcut from an elevated command prompt?

No - See below:

Farstrider - thank you for that tip, seems to have removed the Homegroup icon from the desktop. :)

[sc302 Veteran]

No desktop cleanup.

Why would you look in the user folder for a system icon?

Home group removal , going to have to go through the google links

http://www.google.com/search?q=windows+8+system+icon+location&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari#sclient=tablet-gws&hl=en&safe=off&client=safari&tbo=d&q=remove+homegroup+icon+from+desktop+windows+8&oq=windows+8+remove+desktop+hom&gs_l=tablet-gws.1.0.0i8l2.10405.24296.0.26490.42.37.2.1.1.11.992.11340.5j18j3j1j2j1j7.37.0.les%3B..0.0...1ac.1.WWOaqP_GlJw&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.&fp=80f159a0c9a650ce&bpcl=38897761&biw=1024&bih=672

[Ambroos]

Have a look in Personalization -> Change desktop icons (left sidebar). In 7 it's the only way to disable some desktop shortcuts but I'm not sure if it handles third party stuff.

[trek]

\Users\Public\Desktop

Is it in there?

[The Evil Overlord]

Is there anyway to right click it, or some other way to go into it's properties, and 'hide' it?

[PNWDweller]

Customize Desktop icons doesn't show third party items. And right click only shows as below:

[siah1214]

It's under C:\users\public\desktop. Go there and delete it, you may have to use elevated command prompt.

[PNWDweller]

It's under C:\users\public\desktop. Go there and delete it, you may have to use elevated command prompt.

Not here. Checked that. :)

[MS Bob 11]

From registry editor, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace and rename the CLSIDs for HomeGroup and whatever other icon you have that you want to get rid of. You can Google to find out which CLSIDs correspond to which objects.

HomeGroup would be {B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}. Dunno the CLSID for that other ****, you can find that out from registry or Google.

[PNWDweller]

Can you explain why I would rename the CLSID? (would that not cause program errors? )

I did find it, actually by looking through each CLSID and it stated the Cloud Drive Navigator in the entry. I deleted that entry (after backing it up first) and it did remove the icon.

I guess the more important thing for me though is - Why would a user be forced to have to go through the registry to delete an icon embedded so deeply in the desktop? That seems pretty extreme to me.

[MS Bob 11]

Well renaming or deleting there will only affect the Desktop namespace. If you are scared of deleting or renaming, change the SGAO flags.

[PNWDweller]

It did break the navigator but no problem as I can get to my files through their site (Or restore my backup). I see what you mean by renaming or in my case deleting. But...might have to dumb down for me a bit. I see you are a programmer which I am not. But - What is the SGAO Flag?

[MS Bob 11]

Well TweakUI had an easy to use GUI to do it but getting TweakUI to run on Windows 7 or 8 x64 is a pain in the ass. Shell Object Editor can also help you: http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/Shell-Object-Editor.shtml . After installing it, run it in Vista compatibility mode otherwise it won't run properly on 7/8. Then open it, turn on "Expert mode" and right click the item you want to hide and choose "Hide".