issue with deleting duplicate Desktop folder

You went through a lot more trouble than you had to, first because you applied a "fix" unrelated to the actual problem, and then not getting the correct fix in the initial replies.

The desktop.ini file from your Desktop folder somehow got copied to the Pictures folder, changing its display name (LocalizedResourceName) to Desktop while nothing changed in the file system or the User Shell Folder designations. Deleting the errant desktop.ini file from the Pictures folder would have solved your issue. (the correct desktop.ini file for the Pictures folder would have been re-created at some point by the OS)

For your current residual problem, check the contents of the desktop.ini file in the Deskotp folder. It should be as follows:

Code:

[.ShellClassInfo]
LocalizedResourceName=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-21769
IconResource=%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-183

If the contents look good, the Picture icon is lingering because of icon caching & should disappear on its own.

If the contents don't match, edit to match the above and be patient.

For instant gratification, you can force the correct icon on the Desktop folder under This PC (but not affect the correspoinding file system folder), save the following in a text file with a .reg extension, the right-click the .reg file icon & select Merge.

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CLSID\{B4BFCC3A-DB2C-424C-B029-7FE99A87C641}]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CLSID\{B4BFCC3A-DB2C-424C-B029-7FE99A87C641}\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\windows\\system32\\imageres.dll,-183"

Hello @miztrniceguy

We don't speak Spanish here in Brazil but Portuguese, but happy new year to you too...

The icons are also set in the desktop.ini file so when you renamed or moved them that might have gone broken.

To fix this you have to edit or create a new desktop.ini file for each folder and add a line in the [.ShellClassInfo] part.

For the Desktop folder:

Code:

[.ShellClassInfo]
IconResource=%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-183

For the Pictures Folder:

Code:

[.ShellClassInfo]
IconResource=%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-113

That's it.

Thank you both, Keith and Ricardo. I will look at this a bit later. My apologies Ricardo, I shouldn't have assumed Spanish without looking to see where you're from. Please amend to feliz Ano Novo :)

Well, it's been a few days for me to get back to my wife's laptop since my vacation ended. I thought it was going to be easyish to resolve based on the last couple of posts. However, when I enabled the view of system folders on her desktop, there I 1 ini files. The image I attached shows both icons and contents of both, which are completely different. The top one is contents for the top icon, as it appears on the desktop above the other one, and the bottom one is the bottom icon.

So now I am confused as to what to do from here. Thank you again for your previous and continued help.

Michael

Ok, I understand the difference. So which do I edit with the code you provided previously? The 1st one? Do I edit in Notepad or in Regedit?

thanks again!

Bump

Impossible to say without knowing the source folder.

Are any of the "standard" folders missing???

Compare a folder listing from Explorer and one from PowerShell/ComandPrompt. There should be one folder that appears as Desktop in Explorer and something else in the console.

You say your Pictures folder is missing. So, if you click in the Address bar and type:
shell:my pictures, your designated PIctures folder will open. If it's displaying Desktop as its name, delete the desktop.ini file within that folder.

I will try to look at that tomorrow, thank you.

Hello. I have been using the advice on this thread to fix a similar issue. I was able to restore our "Desktop" folder to the one that shows when using a "shell" search. The issue is that we have a second Desktop folder that was previously the "Download" folder.... I'm guessing... due to the large downward arrow as the icon. The location of the second Desktop folder states that is in the Users folder for our laptop, but when looking in that folder, there's not a duplicate Desktop folder there. Neither is there a Download folder for that matter. Until I could get this situation solved, I've just been saving our downloads to a file in Documents. I can't see a way to use your advice if I don't have second Desktop folder in Users, but only shows up in This PC. Can you suggest a fix please? Thank you in advance!