What Are Desktop.ini Files, and How Do I Get Rid of Them?

☑️ Invisible or not, they'll be there.

Chapters
1:50 Displaying icons
2:10 Enable viewing hidden files
4:30 On the desktop

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[John.Mann.]

I’m a tiny bit surprised that these settings are stored in .INI files, rather than being hidden in the monstrosity the Windows Registry. I remember the days when almost all configuration settings were in .INI files, and the problem for anyone needing to look at or edit them was finding them. Some in the Windows or Windows/system folders, or maybe in a folder belonging to an application. Some applications even used both location. What fun!

[bigsky]

I learned about these desktop.ini files many years ago, dating all the way back to Windows 3.1, and like you say, if you delete them (you won't break your computer doing so) wherever you see them, they'll just be recreated quietly in the background by Windows. Mac OSX has similar files that are also hidden from the user that perform similar functions.

[PrinceXTC]

Great video, Mr. Notenboom.
I actually had a similar situation just yesterday, however in a different scenario: My Flycast game boxart wasn't refreshing on a new system. But all I had to do was delete the actual boxart folder. And sure enough - on the next restart, it automatically created a new boxart folder and downloaded all the files. (similar to how the desktop.ini file is being reset to default after deleting it)

[johnburgess]

I wish some of the folder settings could be on a per-folder basis. Generally I want to see all hidden files, but I particularly do NOT want to see the hidden .ini files in the Desktop view. But, alas, that setting about hidden files, hiding extensions, etc. all appear to be global to the whole system. Sigh. Of course, having this setting be on a per-folder basis means the setting itself would be stored in a .ini file in the directory, thereby ensuring that the file we don't want to see will be present!

[tedwalford]

Where the desktop.ini files make me crazy is when I'm doing a move or delete of a huge number of files--or worse, a SET of moves or deletes, say as part of a manually-controlled backup, I'll walk away, but when I come back--perhaps in the morning--the job is just sitting there waiting for me to answer if I'm sure I want to delete that "system file, " desktop.ini.

[partharoy]

So precisely explained. Thank you for the wonderful explanation.

[nigelogilvie]

Thanks. Wondered about this. They suddenly appeared about a month ago. After listening to your article I realise that I set "Show hidden files" at about that time. I don;t need to, so I'll go and unset it now. Thanks again.

[Douglas_Blake]

Unless you want your entire system displaying folders at default settings, leave the "desktop.ini" files alone.

Keep the "Hide protected operating system files'" checked... if you want to see hidden files they will not show up when you select that option.

[harveybc]

Well, I learned something today. I was wondering what those were. I mostly ignore them although I do see them when using Linux to look at the contents of folders on a windows drive. Never opened them to see what they were. Just not curious enough since they take so little space.
However there is a way to permanently get rid of them. Don't use windows.

[JV-pukx]

At least the scourge of the _thumbs.db_ files is all but done! These used to get generated when viewing folders with graphics files in them. (They contained the thumbnail previews.) Their presence wasn't much of an issue, until that recently viewed folder was to be moved or deleted. Windows would report a file still in use! (These files _can_ come back when viewing some network shares.)

[sebastian]

Why? Why those files bother you? Yes, on my 80M HDD, they used to take some very precious space but now, with TB HDD capacity? Aside, those files are hidden so no one should see them in explorer with default settings. Also, what they do for the UI, is so less resources intensive that really do not matter having them or not.

[glynnetolar]

Resistance is futile,
for values less than 1 ohm.

[BurrPulch]

I wish there was a registry setting to disable creating them. I never use customized folders and these files screw with my backups and folder hash creation - evem more so the Thumbs.db files.

[stevencooper]

"We are the forever repeating files. You will be annoyed. Resistance is futile." The Borg have taken over Windows.

[VirendraBG]

May I request you to create videos like this for Fedora KDE?

[gatonero]

Every time I watch videos like this, I'm happy to use Linux. 🙂

[sMv-Afjal]

Where do you learns this information from?

[azrobbins]

Is there any way to hide hidden files only on the desktop? My solution is to place them underneath a widget so I can't see them.

[batman]

I seem to have 39 desktop.ini files, all apparently more than 4 years old, but as they only amount to 12 Kb in total, I don't think I will disturb them.

[LauraKnotek]

The other files that a lot of people question are DLL files, which are necessary but people frequently misunderstand the purpose of.